Campus & Community

National Academy of Sciences elects eight Harvard professors

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The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced the election of eight Harvard faculty members among its new field of members. All told, 72 new members and 18 foreign associates were selected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

The election was held April 29 during the business session of the 145th annual meeting of the academy. Those elected bring the total number of active members to 2,041. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the academy, with citizenship outside the United States. The total number of foreign associates is nearly 400.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the advancement of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

Harvard’s newly elected members:

Michael E. Greenberg, professor, departments of Neurology and Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School (HMS), and director, Division of Neuroscience, Children’s Hospital, Boston

Lars E. Hernquist, professor, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Eric N. Jacobsen, Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Ronald C. Kessler, professor, Department of Health Care Policy, HMS

Lisa J. Randall, professor of theoretical physics, Department of Physics

Anjana Rao, professor of pathology and senior investigator, Immune Disease Institute, HMS

Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics, Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, HMS

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology.