Nine Stanford faculty members are among the 84 scientists elected this year to join the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the United States’ most prestigious societies honoring achievement in research.
Signed into being by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS serves as “advisor to the nation,” providing “scientific advice to the government ‘whenever called upon’ by any government department,” according to the society’s charter. It comprises more than 2,000 members and over 400 foreign associates, non-U.S. citizens who are nonvoting members of the organization.
The nine Stanford honorees join the ranks of a host of scientific greats past and present. The academy boasts well-known names such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. To date, nearly 200 living members of the NAS and almost 500 total have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
The University’s newest NAS members also join many fellow Stanford faculty members. The academy elected nine researchers from Stanford last year, and two the year before that.
Those selected this year span many different scientific disciplines. Honorees include Helen M. Blau, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology; John C. Boothroyd, the Burt and Marion Avery Professor of Immunology; Hongjie Dai, the J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professor of Chemistry; Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor of psychology; Martin M. Fejer, professor of applied physics and co-director of Stanford Photonics Research Center; Hazel R. Markus, the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences; Maryam Mirzakhani, professor of mathematics; Stephen R. Palumbi, the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences, director of Hopkins Marine Station and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment; and Paul Segall, professor of geophysics.
The scientists will be formally inducted into the NAS next April, when the society holds its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Members serve as part of the academy for life.
Contact Hannah Knowles at hknowles ‘at’ stanford.edu.