Campus & Community

Harvard faculty named to National Academy of Sciences

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Eight honored for ‘their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’

Eight Harvard University faculty, including four from Harvard Medical School, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) this year, honored for “their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” the NAS announced Tuesday.

Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research.

Those elected include David Charbonneau, professor of astronomy, Department of Astronomy, Center for Astrophysics; Noam D. Elkies, professor of mathematics, Department of Mathematics; David D. Ginty, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School (HMS); Barbara B. Kahn, vice chair for research strategy and George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Ariel Pakes, Thomas Professor of Economics, Department of Economics; Madhu Sudan, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Rachel I. Wilson, Martin Family Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, HMS; Junying Yuan, Elizabeth D. Hay Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Cell Biology, HMS.

The eight are among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates recognized by the NAS this year.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit society of distinguished scholars. Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. It is committed to furthering science in America, and its members are active contributors to the international scientific community. Nearly 500 members of the NAS have won Nobel Prizes, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, founded in 1914, is today one of the premier international journals publishing the results of original research.