Five faculty members at the University of California, Berkeley, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional honors for an American engineer.

The new members are Harvey W. Blanch, professor of chemical engineering; David E. Culler, professor of computer sciences; Roger T. Howe, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences; and Arunava Majumdar, professor of mechanical engineering. They are among 74 new members elected to the NAE this year.

In addition, William M. Kahan, professor of computer sciences, was one of 10 foreign associates named to the academy.

This brings to 92 the total number of UC Berkeley faculty members in the society. The total U.S. membership of the academy is now 2,195, and the number of foreign associates is 178. Among academic institutions, UC Berkeley has one of the highest representations in the academy, including alumni.

This year's NAE members from UC Berkeley were honored for the following:

Blanch for his advances in enzyme engineering, bioseparations, and biothermodynamics.

Culler for his contributions to scalable parallel processing systems, including architectures, operating systems and programming environments.

Howe for his contributions to the development of microelectromechanical systems in processes, devices and systems.

Majumdar for his contributions to nanoscale thermal engineering and molecular nanomechanics.

Kahan for the development of techniques for reliable floating point computation, especially the IEEE Floating Point Standards.

Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of engineering research, practice or education. This includes significant contributions to the engineering literature, the pioneering of new and developing technologies, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing and implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.

New academy members will be inducted in October at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Additional information about the National Academy of Engineering is available online at http://www.nae.edu.