NAS president Bruce Alberts
Along with the honor that comes with this year's election of new members into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) also comes a challenge: Get involved.

Bruce Alberts, NAS president, urges new inductees to step up their efforts to influence public policy. "A major role of the academy is to encourage scientists to be more active in their community," Alberts emphasizes.

NAS elected 60 new members and 15 foreign associates at its 135th annual meeting on April 28 in Washington, D.C. The election brings the total active membership roll to 1,798 and the foreign associates roll to 310. Academy membership is among the highest honors for a scientist or engineer.

Alberts notes that reports generated by members in the past have lent support to the implementation of the Human Genome Project and the modification of a law that forbade carcinogenic additives in amounts too small to...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!