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National Academy of Sciences
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Our Members

On May 1, 2012, the National Academy of Sciences elected 84 new members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, or Institute of Medicine is considered one of the highest professional honors among scientists, engineers, and health care professionals. Each year, new members are elected by current members based on outstanding achievement and commitment to service. Visit the NAS, NAE, and IOM membership sites for more information.

Members at a Glance

President Obama poses with several Academies members appointed to prominent positions early in his administration.

The National Academy of Sciences membership consists of approximately 2,200 members and 420 foreign associates, each of whom is affiliated with one of 31 disciplinary sections. The Institute of Medicine has more than 1,800 members and foreign associates. The National Academy of Engineering has more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates.

More than 300 NAS, NAE, and IOM members are Nobel laureates.

The National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation have been awarded to more than 250 of our members.

Notable Members, Past and Present


Listen to InterViews of NAS member Yu Xie (sociology).

Biographical Memoirs are brief biographies of influential National Academy of Sciences members such as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Margaret Mead. Written by those who knew them or their work, these biographies provide a personal and scholarly view of the lives and work of America's most distinguished scientists and a biographical history of science in the United States. 

The National Academy of Engineering has published 12 volumes of memorial tributes to deceased members; the publications can be found on www.nap.edu.

 

Committee Service

Each year, more than 6,000 Academy members and other volunteer experts serve on hundreds of study committees that examine some of society's most pressing issues. The results of their efforts frequently form the basis of public policies for decades to come. In addition, members of our standing committees and roundtables provide ongoing advice and guidance on a range of issues.

National Associates

More than 1,000 individuals have been awarded the lifetime designation of National Associate to formally honor their extraordinary service in serving on committees or acting as report reviewers.


 
Members in the News

NAS Member Shares 2012 Nobel in Economics

Alvin Roth and Lloyd ShapleyOct. 15, 2012 -- National Academy of Sciences member Lloyd Shapley has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics together with American economist Alvin Roth "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design."



Members Receive Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Robert Lefkowitz and Brian KobilkaOct. 10, 2012 -- Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. They were awarded the prize "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors." Both are members of the National Academy of Sciences; Lefkowitz is an Institute of Medicine member as well.



Academy Members Receive Nobel Prize in Physics

S.Haroche - © CNRS Photothèque/Christophe Lebedinsky, D. Wineland - © NIST
Oct. 9, 2012 -- American David Wineland and Frenchman Serge Haroche have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics. They were awarded the prize "for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.” Wineland is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and Haroche is a foreign associate.

Members Receive Nobel Prize in Medicine

John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka
Oct. 8, 2012 -- Briton John Gurdon and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They were awarded the prize "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.” Both are foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences; Gurdon is also a foreign associate of the Institute of Medicine.


Members Awarded 2012 Kavli Prizes

Four members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine have been awarded this year’s Kavli Prizes, which recognize scientists with $1 million awards for seminal advances in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience. The Kavli Prizes are a partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Kavli Foundation, and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

David C. Jewitt, an NAS member and professor in the department of earth and space sciences and Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, shares the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two other scientists, Jane Luu and Michael E. Brown.

Mildred S. Dresselhaus, NAS and NAE member and emeritus professor of physics and electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been awarded the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience.

Cornelia Isabella Bargmann, NAS member and professor at Rockefeller University in New York City, and Ann M. Graybiel, NAS and IOM member and professor in MIT’s department of brain and cognitive sciences, share the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience with Winfried Denk.

Two NAS Members Share 2011 Nobel in Economics

left: Thomas J. Sargent, right: Christopher A. Sims; photos courtesy Nobelprize.orgOct. 10, 2011 -- National Academy of Sciences members Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims have been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics for their research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.




NAE Member Wins 2011 Nobel in Chemistry

photo courtesy Nobelprize.orgOct. 5, 2011 -- National Academy of Engineering member Daniel Shechtman has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of quasicrystals.



NAS Members Share 2011 Nobel for Physics

left to right: B Beutler, J Hoffmann, R Steinman; photos courtesy Nobelprize.orgOct. 4, 2011 -- National Academy of Sciences members Saul Perlmutter, Briand P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess have won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on the accelerating expansion of the universe.



NAS, IOM Members Receive Nobel Prize in Medicine

left to right: B Beutler, J Hoffmann, R Steinman; photos courtesy Nobelprize.orgOct. 3, 2011 -- Bruce Beutler and the late Ralph Steinman, members of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Jules A. Hoffmann, a foreign associate of the NAS. Beutler and Hoffmann were awarded half the prize "for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity," and Steinman received the other half "for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.”

Several Members Win National Medals of Science, Technology

MedalsSept. 28, 2011 -- Members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are well-represented among the winners of the 2010 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation. All seven recipients of the National Medal of Science are members of NAS, NAE, and/or IOM -- winner Shu Chien is a member of all three. Of the five recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, three are members of the National Academy of Engineering.

Members honored are:

National Medal of Science

Jacqueline K. Barton (NAS)
California Institute of Technology

Ralph L. Brinster (NAS, IOM)
University of Pennsylvania

Shu Chien (NAS, NAE, IOM
University of California, San Diego

Rudolf Jaenisch (NAS, IOM)
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Peter J. Stang (NAS)
University of Utah

Richard A. Tapia (NAE)
Rice University

Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan (NAS)
New York University

National Medal of Technology and Innovation

Rakesh Agrawal (NAE)
Purdue University

B. Jayant Baliga (NAE)
North Carolina State University

Yvonne C. Brill (NAE)
RCA Astro Electronics (retired)

Other winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation are C. Donald Bateman of Honeywell and Michael F. Tompsett of TheraManager.


Richard AlleyRichard Alley Receives Outstanding Climate Science Communication Award

August 29, 2011 –National Academy of Sciences member Richard B. Alley has been awarded the first Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. The $10,000 prize, presented by Climate One at the Commonwealth Club, recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to the public in a clear and compelling fashion. Alley, the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the EMS Environmental Institute at Pennsylvania State University, is the host of “Earth: The Operators’ Manual,” a three-part documentary nationally televised on PBS, and has recently co-authored The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change. Alley also chaired a Research Council committee that authored the 2001 report Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises. The award is named after the late NAS member Stephen H. Schneider, an internationally acclaimed scientist recognized for research, policy analysis, and outreach in climate change.   

 

Several IOM Members Voted Among Most Influential Physician Execs

May 9, 2011 – Twenty-two of the 50 individuals recognized by Modern Physician and Modern Healthcare as the most influential physician executives of 2011 are members of the Institute of Medicine. These 22, including IOM’s president Harvey V. Fineberg, and their positions on the list follow:    

  • Donald Berwick (2)
  • Carolyn Clancy (3)
  • Regina Benjamin (4)
  • Thomas Frieden (5)
  • Francis Collins (6)
  • Margaret Hamburg (7)
  • Harvey Fineberg (8)
  • Mark Chassin (9)
  • Glenn Steele Jr. (13)
  • Gary Gottlieb (18)
  • Paul Tang (21)
  • Tadataka Yamada (25)
  • Brent James (26
  • Christine Cassel (30)
  • Georges Benjamin (31)
  • Darrell Kirch (32)
  • Jonathan Perlin (33)
  • William Roper (35)
  • Robert Brook (37)
  • Risa Lavizzo-Mourey (38)
  • Arnold Milstein (40)
  • David Blumenthal (41)
  •  

Vest to Receive Prestigious Vannevar Bush Award

March 31, 2011 - NAE President Charles Vest will receive the National Science Board's 2011 Vannevar Bush Award "for his outstanding contributions to both his scientific field and to the scientific community at large," the board announced. Vest will be presented with the medal on May 10 at a ceremony to be held at the U.S. Department of State. NSB is the policymaking body for the National Science Foundation and advises the U.S. president and Congress on science and engineering issues.

Members Receive National Medals of Science, Technology

Nov. 18, 2010 – President Obama awarded the 2009 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation to several members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering scientific research that has led to better understanding of the world around us, as well as to innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness, standard of living, and quality of life through technological innovation.

Members who received the National Medal of Science:

  • Yakir Aharanov (NAS)
  • Stephen J. Benkovic (NAS/IOM)
  • Esther M. Conwell (NAS/NAE)
  • Marye Anne Fox (NAS)
  • Susan L. Lindquist (NAS/IOM)
  • Mortimer Mishkin (NAS/IOM)
  • David B. Mumford (NAS)
  • Stanley B. Prusiner (NAS/IOM)
  • Warren M. Washington (NAE)
  • Amnon Yariv (NAS/NAE)

Member who received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation:

  • Harry W. Coover (NAE)

Watch the award ceremony on whitehouse.gov