UC scientists again top NAS membership
Tuesday 10 January 2023
Fifteen UC scientists were among new members elected May 3 to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a U.S. scientist. As in previous years, more UC faculty were elected to the NAS than all other public universities combined.
In the last three NAS annual elections, more than half of the public university scientists honored — 54 of of 94 — teach and do research at UC.
The National Academy of Sciences, established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, acts as an official science and technology adviser to the federal government. Members are elected based on their distinguished and original research.
By campus or laboratory new UC NAS members include:
- James W. Demmel, Dr. Richard Carl Dehmel Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Department of Mathematics and the Computer Science Division
- W. Michael Hanemann, Chancellor's Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
- Athanasios Theologis, emeritus adjunct professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology
- Barbara A. Dosher, dean, School of Social Science, and professor, Department of Cognitive Science
- T. Mark Harrison, director, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, and professor of geology, Department of Earth and Space Sciences
- Steven E. Jacobsen, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
- Edward L. Wright, David Saxon Presidential Chair in Physics and professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
- Herbert Levine, professor, Department of Physics
- J. Andrew McCammon, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and John E. Mayer Chair of Theoretical Chemistry
- David T. Sandwell, professor of geophysics, Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Alexander D. Johnson, professor and vice chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
- Shinya Yamanaka, senior investigator and L.K. Whittier Foundation Investigator in Stem Cell Biology, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (Elected as foreign associate)
- Michael S. Gazzaniga, director, Sage Center for the Study of the Mind
- Boris I. Shraiman, Suzan F. Gurley Professor of Theoretical Physics and Biology, and permanent member, Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Benjamin D. Santer, physicist and atmospheric scientist, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison
- With the addition of 72 new members, there are 2,113 active academy members. The academy also elected 18 new nonvoting foreign associates for a total of 41