Ido Golding elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Illinois Physics Professor Ido Golding has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

APS Fellowship recognizes society members for outstanding contributions to physics through research, teaching, applications of physics, or service. Election is highly selective, and each annual cohort of new Fellows comprises no more than half a percent of the APS’s nonstudent membership.

Golding was selected by the Division of Biological Physics “for the development of new physical tools with mathematical reasoning to make precise measurements of cellular processes and for using those tools to reveal hidden features of cell behavior.”

Golding’s biological physics research program in Urbana focuses on how living cells process information from their environment and make decisions based on that information. He and his research group members aim to develop a quantitative understanding of cellular decision-making and identify simple principles underlying this process.

The group uses the bacterium E. coli and its virus, phage lambda, to investigate these questions, examining complex virus-phage interactions at the level of individual events in space and time. The group’s work combines molecular and cell biology, live single-cell microscopy, quantitative measurements, signal and image processing, and theoretical approaches including dynamical systems theory, stochastic processes, and nonequilibrium phenomena. In multiple collaborative projects, the group has also extended this work to higher organisms.

Throughout his career, Golding has emphasized the importance of teaching and mentorship to the future of the scientific endeavor. He has advised and mentored students across physics, biophysics, microbiology, bioengineering, chemistry, biology, and related fields. His laboratory brings together experimental and theoretical approaches to investigate the physical principles underlying cellular behavior, providing training that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. The courses he teaches at Illinois have earned repeated recognition from students and he has been named several times to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students.

Golding earned a B.S. in physics, summa cum laude, from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in 1991, followed by an M.S. in physics, magna cum laude, from Tel Aviv University in 1997 and a Ph.D. in physics from Tel Aviv University in 2001. Originally trained as a condensed matter theorist, he subsequently spent five years developing expertise in experimental molecular biology. From 2002 to 2006, he was a Lewis Thomas Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.

Golding joined the Illinois Physics faculty in 2007. In 2010, he joined the faculty of the Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2013, he received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Golding returned to Illinois Physics in 2019 through the University of Illinois System President’s Distinguished Faculty Recruitment Program. He holds affiliate appointments in the Departments of Microbiology and Bioengineering at Illinois and an adjunct professorship in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine.