Editor's Note: On May 2, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from nine countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Nearly half of the new members are life scientists. In this article, The Scientist presents photographs of some of the new members and comments from a few of them on their careers and on past and current research. A full directory of NAS members can be found online at www.nas.edu/nas.
Once he found out ... well, the rest is history. Palmer started exploring the chloroplast genome in the late '70s as a Stanford University graduate student and quickly realized how important its genes could be for deciphering plant evolution. By attracting a bevy of young scientists to his laboratory eager to jump on the haywagon (some with little or no experience in molecular biology), Palmer ...
