The National Academy of Sciences elected seven Harvard faculty: Scott V. Edwards (pictured), Robert H. Bates, Catherine Dulac, Alfred L. Goldberg, Jeannie T. Lee, Bruce Western, and Hao Wu.

File photo by Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus & Community

Harvard faculty elected to NAS

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National Academy of Sciences recognizes seven for their achievements

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently announced the election of seven Harvard faculty members among its 84 new members and 21 foreign associates. Members are chosen for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, and will be formally inducted into the NAS at its annual meeting next year.

The newly elected members of Harvard include:

Robert H. Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government in the departments of government and African and African American Studies. Bates’ research focuses on the political economy of development, particularly in Africa, and on violence and state failure.

Catherine Dulac, Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dulac’s group uses molecular, genetic, and electrophysiological techniques to explore the molecular and neuronal basis of innate social behaviors in the mouse. They investigate the architecture and functional logic of neuronal circuits underlying pheromone signaling and the phenomenon of genomic imprinting in the brain.

Scott V. Edwards, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, curator of ornithology, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Edwards’ major interests include multilocus phylogeography and speciation in birds, genome evolution during the transition from reptiles to birds, host-pathogen interactions, the evolutionary consequences of disease outbreaks, and statistical models for inferring multilocus phylogenies, and historical demography.

Alfred L. Goldberg, professor of cell biology, Harvard Medical School. Goldberg’s major discoveries have concerned the biochemical mechanisms and physiological regulation of protein breakdown in cells and the importance of this process in human disease. His laboratory first demonstrated the non-lysosomal ATP-dependent pathway for protein breakdown, now termed the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.

Jeannie T. Lee, professor of genetics and pathology, Harvard Medical School, molecular biologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Lee specializes in the study of epigenetic regulation by long noncoding RNA using X-chromosome inactivation as a model system. Her lab has made several contributions toward understanding how RNA directs chromatin and gene expression change.

Bruce Western, professor of sociology, Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy, director of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, faculty chair of the Criminal Justice Policy and Management Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Western’s research broadly studies the relationship between political institutions and social and economic inequality. He has long-standing interests in criminal justice policy, incarceration, and the effects of incarceration on poor communities.

Hao Wu, Asa and Patricia Springer Professor of Structural Biology, professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, and Boston Children’s Hospital’s program in cellular and molecular medicine. Wu’s lab focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanism of signal transduction by immune receptors, especially innate immune receptors. Her lab uses X-ray crystallography in conjunction with other biochemical and biophysical methods, such as electron microscopy, to elucidate the protein-protein interactions involved in these processes.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council — provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.