NAS Elects New Members

The National Academy of Sciences announced on May 1 the election of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 15 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. This brings the total active membership to 2,152 and the number of foreign associates—nonvoting members with citizenship outside the U.S.—to 430.

Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors bestowed upon a U.S. scientist or engineer. This year, the academy elected 26 women—the largest number in its history—including five female foreign associates.

Of the 84 new members, the following 14 work in areas related to the chemical sciences or are members of the American Chemical Society: Susan L. Brantley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Wah Chiu, Baylor College of Medicine; Pablo G. Debenedetti, Princeton University; Joseph M. DeSimone, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University; Gideon Dreyfuss, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Paul T. Englund, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; John B. Goodenough, University of Texas, Austin; John T. Groves, Princeton; John F. Hartwig, University of California, Berkeley; Sabeeha Merchant, UCLA; Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Northwestern University; James L. Skinner, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Subra Suresh, National Science Foundation; and Xiaowei Zhuang, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Harvard University.

Among the new foreign associates, three are ACS members or work in chemistry-related areas: Louise Chow, University of Alabama, Birmingham (Taiwan); François N. Diederich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (Luxembourg); and Vivian Wing-Wah Yam, University of Hong Kong (China).