Click here for additional photos of life scientists elected to the National Academy of Sciences


This past May, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) elected its new members and with the election came another round of criticisms that the NAS is elitist and gender biased, that the election process is outmoded, and that truly great scientists go unrecognized.1 Allegations aside, however, this year's election was the biggest ever--the first in which 72 members were chosen--and it signals the recognition of 33 life scientists from the United States plus eight out of 15 newly elected foreign associates.

Courtesy of Scripps Research Intstitute

Gerald Joyce

"I remember the first time I went to the National Academies in 1995," says Gerald Joyce, investigator at Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology and professor in the department of chemistry and molecular biology at Scripps Research Institute. "I couldn't believe how august it was--how much...

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