Each year, the National Academy of Sciences honours individuals with awards in recognition of their scientific achievements.
In addition, they also elect members and foreign associates to the National Academy in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honours that a scientist can receive.
Congrats to the following Faculty Members who have received awards this year and those who have been elected as NAS members:
Pradel Research Award
Dora E. Angelaki, Baylor College of Medicine, is a Faculty Member in Neuroscience, ‘Sensory systems’. She received the inaugural Pradel Research Award in Neuroscience for her work clarifying how vestibular and visual signals in humans combine to mediate perception and to direct appropriate motor behaviours. Her research findings have important implications in the design of more effective therapies to treat disorders of balance and movement.
Read Dora’s latest evaluation on the identification of an inhibitory circuit that regulates cerebellar Golgi cell activity.
NAS Award in Molecular Biology
Zhijian (James) Chen is a Cell Biology Faculty Member based at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Texas. He is honoured for two contributions important for cancer and immunity: discovering an unsuspected component in a central signaling pathway and identifying an unprecedented role for a subcellular organelle in fighting viral infection. The award recognizes a recent notable discovery by a young scientist.
Read Zhijian’s latest evaluation on the ubiquitin ligase Riplet, which was found essential for RIG-I-dependent innate immune responses to RNA virus infection.
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
Jonathan B. Losos is an Ecology Faculty Member from Harvard University. He is recognized for his novel and penetrating evolutionary studies of adaptive radiation in vertebrates, notably his comprehensive study of anolis lizards in tropical America. The Elliot Medal recognizes “a most meritorious, recently published work in zoology or paleontology.” The Medal is given every four years.
Read Jonathan’s latest evaluation on the molecular basis of convergent evolution in snakes with adaptations that allow them to consume prey expressing deadly toxins.
New NAS Members
- Andrew Clark, Section Head of Evolutionary/Comparative Genetics
- Tina Henkin, Microbiology Faculty Member
- Bruce Levin, Ecology Faculty Member
- George Coupland, Plant Biology Faculty Member
- Ottoline Leyser, Section Head of Plant Growth & Development
- Philippe Sansonetti, Head of the Microbiology Faculty