With interests stretching from the core of the sun to the microenvironment of a human cell, researchers from eight UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were among the 72 new members and 18 foreign members the academy selected at its April 27 meeting in Washington, D.C. Election to the academy is one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve other than a Nobel Prize, said Steven Beckwith, UC vice president for Research and Graduate Studies.
"UC's performance is unparalleled," Beckwith said. "This level of excellence has never been achieved by any other system in the United States. The extraordinary number of new members is a testimony to the breadth and depth of the UC research mission and the ability of our researchers to advance scientific understanding."
Individually, five UC campuses ranked among the top seven universities in number of members elected with only Harvard having more. Harvard University and Medical School had a combined nine new members; UC San Francisco and Stanford University each had five members followed by UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Diego each with three. The rest of the institutions named had one or two members.
The National Academy of Sciences, established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, acts as an official science and technology adviser to the federal government. Members are elected based on their distinguished and original research.
With the addition of 72 new members, there are 2,097 active academy members. The academy also elected 18 new nonvoting foreign associates for a total of 409.
The new UC NAS members are listed here. For details about their research, visit the campus links below.
Berkeley
- Alexis T. Bell, Theodore Vermeulen Professor of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Michael I. Jordan, Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor, Department of Statistics and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
- David Aldous (United Kingdom), professor of statistics, Department of Statistics, UC Berkeley
Irvine
- Michael D. Cahalan, professor and chair, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
- Greg J. Duncan, Distinguished Professor of Education, Department of Education
- Susan E. Trumbore, director, Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physicas and professor, Department of Earth system science
Los Angeles
- Kendall N. Houk, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Robert D. Mare, professor, Department of Sociology
- Charles Stanish, director, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and professor, Department of Anthropology
Riverside
- Jian-Kang Zhu, Jane S. Johnson Chair Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
San Diego
- Susan S. Golden, Distinguished Professor, division of biological sciences
- Terrence J. Sejnowski, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- Jack Keil Wolf, Stephen O. Rice Professor, Center for Magnetic Recording
San Francisco
- Robert J. Fletterick, professor of biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
- Donald E. Ganem, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of microbiology and medicine
- Lewis L. Lanier, professor, Cancer Research Institute and provessor and vice chair, Department of Microbiology and immunology
- Zena Werb, professor and vice chair, Department of Anatomy
- Ulrike A. Heberlein (Chile), professor, Department of Anatomy, UCSF
Santa Barbara
- Douglas W. Burbank, professor of geology and director, Institute for Crustal Studies
- Gary T. Horowitz, professor of physics, Department of Physics
Santa Cruz
- Gary A. Glatzmaier, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Berkeley Lab
- Mina J. Bissell, Distinguished Scientist, life sciences division