Howard Hughes Institute Makes A Big Showing In 1995 Class Of NAS Members

The inclusion of eight investigators from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) on the list of 60 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) may mark a new record for the academy. Although precise data are not available, NAS officials speculate that this is the largest number of new academy members associated with the same organization. The Chevy Chase, Md.-based institute's strong showing comes as no surprise to NAS home secretary Peter Raven, who cites HHMI researchers' increasing presence in the biomedical community. In the past five years, Raven notes, "the numbers have gone up sharply." NAS' NEW FOREIGN ASSOCIATES The April election of new members to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) included 15 foreign associates--nonvoting members with citizenship outside the United States--bringing the total of foreign associates to 301. Sherwood Rowland, NAS foreign secretary and a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, comments that the number of countries and diversity in disciplines represented in this year's group is not much different from those of previous years. However, he takes special note of Jan Bures, a senior research scientist at the Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, as one scientist who "did his work under especially adverse circumstances." This is "because he signed a document on behalf of [then-Czech General Secretary Alexander] Dubcek in 1968," explains Rowland. As a result of his show of support for Dubcek's ideas for reforming the Czech Communist Party, Bures lost most of his scientific clout. Despite this, Rowland says, Bures continued to attract graduate students and postdocs from the Western world over the last 25 years because of the quality of his research in the area of neurobiology. The 15 foreign associates elected to 1995 academy membership are: Michael V. Berry, Royal Society Research Professor, Bristol University (U.K.); Jan Bures, senior research scientist, Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (Czechoslovakia); Ennio Di Giorgi, professor of mathematics, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy); Derek A. Denton, director emeritus and professor emeritus, Howard Florey Institute and University of Melbourne (Australia); Vitalii I. Goldanskii, director, Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Moscow (Russia); Robert Huber, scientific member and head of department, Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Munich (Germany); Holger W. Jannasch, senior scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass. (Germany); Leonid V. Keldysh, quantum radiophysics chairman, Moscow State University; academician-secretary, general physics and astronomy division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russia); Miguel León-Portilla, professor, faculty of philosophy and letters, National University of Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico); Xavier T. Le Pichon, professor and director, Geology Laboratory, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris (France); Paul M. Nurse, Napier Research Professor of the Royal Society, University of Oxford (U.K.); Leo Sachs, Otto Meyerhof Professor of Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel); Jun-ichi Tomizawa, director, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan (Japan); Hirofumi Uzawa, senior adviser, Japan Development Bank and professor, emeritus, University of Tokyo (Japan); and Srinivasa S.R. Varadhan, assistant professor, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University (India). "We are delighted with the results of this year's election," comments HHMI president Purnell W. Choppin. "We're especially pleased that three of the eight HHMI investigators elected to the academy are women." In addition to the three female Hughes investigators, three other women are joining the ranks of the academy this year. Fifteen foreign associates from 11 countries were also named at the 132nd annual meeting of the academy (see story below), which was held in Washington, D.C., last April. They will be formally inducted into NAS at next year's annual meeting. The academy was incorporated in 1863 by an act of Congress. Each year since 1977, members have chosen 60 United States researchers to honor with induction because of their "continuing achievements in original research." Current NAS members nominate candidates, who are then voted on by members of 25 disciplinary sections. Final acceptance is determined by a general election of NAS members. Four of the eight new NAS members from HHMI became Hughes investigators a little over a year ago in the institute's most recent expansion (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, May 30, 1994, page 6). With this latest addition, HHMI affiliates who are also academy members now total 52, representing 3 percent of the 1,733 active NAS members. "It's been a banner year," remarks newly elected member Judith Kimble, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin. Kimble, a developmental biologist who studies cell-cell interactions, is referring to her hat trick of scientific achievements in the last 14 months: In April 1994, she received a Hughes investigatorship; and this April, in addition to her NAS appointment, she was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. New NAS member Stuart Schreiber, an HHMI investigator also named last year, offers one reason why so many 1994 HHMI investigators were among the prestigious group of new NAS members: "Hughes was especially interested in identifying a younger group, and I've also been told that the academy's intention is to try to identify younger scientists than they have traditionally, so those two plans intersected in this past year." Schreiber is a professor of chemistry at Harvard University who focuses on investigations of signal transduction. Carla Schatz, a professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, who researches the causes of neurological birth defects; and Douglas Melton, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University who works on molecular cues in embryonic development, are the other two NAS members from the latest class of HHMI appointees. Every year, representatives from institutions throughout the U.S. are added to the list of new members, but generally about "two-thirds are from institutions from Delaware and Pennsylvania north, plus California," explains Raven. This bicoastal distribution, say NAS members, is a reflection of the regional development of American science over the last century. For example, Harvard and Stanford universities have traditionally had healthy representation in each year's list. (This year, six members are affiliated with Harvard, and one with Stanford.) The best-represented institution this year is UC-Berkeley, with six of its faculty named. The UC system accounted for 20 percent of the new members, with 28 percent from California overall. "My suspicion is that once there's a density of academy members somewhere, it may be easier to promote others" in the future, observes new member Charles J. Sherr, an HHMI investigator and Herrick Foundation Chairman of the tumor cell biology department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. St. Jude is among the three new institutions represented this year. "I think there's a tendency for institutions to accumulate academy members, and the more prestigious institutes in the country have several," he adds. The Pacific Northwest Research Foundation in Seattle, represented by environmental biochemistry division head Donald C. Malins; and Clark University in Worcester, Mass., with new NAS member Billie Lee Turner II, a professor of geography and director of Clark's George Perkins Marsh Institute, are the other two new facilities. Sherr, who conducts research on cell cycles, contends that his election may, in the long run, mean more to St. Jude than to him personally. "It brings prestige to the institute. I'm the first person to get in from Memphis. I think it's good for us to get our foot in the door," he maintains. Other St. Jude researchers have also received recognition recently because of their highly cited research on signal transduction (see story on page 13). On May 11, two weeks after being named to NAS, David M. Livingston, director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, relinquished his post of physician-in-chief while retaining his other duties. His self-initiated resignation comes on the heels of two chemotherapy overdoses at the institute, in which one patient died and another was left with acute heart damage. In a statement from Dana-Farber, he said he stepped down because of his "strong conviction that a change in leadership was required to assure the public that a 'new eye' is examining every aspect of our patient care." KENNETH I. BERNS chairman and R.A. Pritchett Professor of Microbiology, and professor of pediatrics, Cornell University Medical College JAN L. BRESLOW Frederick Henry Leonhardt Professor and director, Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University DONALD E. BROWNLEE professor, department of astronomy, University of Washington BOB B. BUCHANAN professor, department of plant biology, University of California, Berkeley FEDERICO CAPASSO head, quantum phenomena and device research department, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. DAVID CHANDLER professor, department of chemistry, University of California, Berkeley VPERSI DIACONIS professor, department of mathematics, Harvard University ADAM M. DZIEWONSKI professor, department of earth and planetary sciences, Harvard University CLARA FRANZINI-ARMSTRONG professor of cell and developmental biology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine HOWARD GEORGI professor of physics, Harvard University COREY S. GOODMAN investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biochemistry, department of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley MELVIN M. GRUMBACH Edward B. Shaw Professor of Pediatrics and head, pediatric division, University of California, San Francisco CLAYTON H. HEATHCOCK professor, department of chemistry, University of California, Berkeley CLYDE A. HUTCHISON III Kenan Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina LILY YEH JAN investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of physiology and biochemistry, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine JUDITH KIMBLE investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, University of Wisconsin ALEXANDER M. KLIBANOV professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology STANLEY J. KORSMEYER investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor and chief, division of medical oncology, department of medicine and pathology, Washington University School of Medicine ANNE O. KRUEGER professor, department of economics, Stanford University H. BLAINE LAWSON, JR. professor, department of mathematics, State University of New York, Stony Brook STEPHEN R. LEONE acting chief, quantum physics division, National Institute of Standards and Technology and fellow, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado JOHN C. LIEBESKIND professor of psychology, University of California, Los Angeles EDWIN N. LIGHTFOOT professor of chemical engineering, University of Wisconsin DAVID M. LIVINGSTON professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School and director, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston GERALD D. MAHAN Distinguished Professor and Scientist, department of physics and astronomy, University of Tennessee DONALD C. MALINS head, environmental biochemistry division, Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, Seattle VINCENT MASSEY professor, department of biological chemistry, University of Michigan DOUGLAS A. MELTON investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of molecular and cellular biology, Harvard University ELLIOT M. MEYEROWITZ professor, division of biology, California Institute of Technology CHARLES S. PARMENTER Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, department of chemistry, Indiana University CHARLES S. PESKIN professor of mathematics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University CHARLES M. RADDING professor of human genetics and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine CALYAMPUDI R. RAO professor of statistics, Center for Multivariate Analysis, Pennsylvania State University ANTHONY C.S. READHEAD professor of astronomy, California Institute of Technology AUSTIN H. RIESEN Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of California, Riverside A. KIMBALL ROMNEY research professor of anthropology, University of California, Irvine STUART L. SCHREIBER investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor, department of chemistry, Harvard University RONALD R. SEDEROFF professor, department of forestry, North Carolina State University CARLA J. SHATZ investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor, division of neurobiology, department of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley YUEN R. SHEN professor, department of physics, University of California, Berkeley CHARLES J. SHERR investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Herrick Foundation Chairman, department of tumor cell biology, St. Jude Children¹s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn. RICHARD M. SHIFFRIN Luther Dana Waterman Research Professor, department of psychology, Indiana University VERNON L. SMITH Regents¹ Professor of Economics, department of economics, University of Arizona RICHARD P. STANLEY professor, department of mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology DANIEL W. STROOCK professor, department of mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology JOHN SUPPE professor of geology, department of geological and geophysical sciences, Princeton University STEVEN D. TANKSLEY Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding, department of plant breeding, Cornell University DAVID J. THOULESS professor, department of physics, University of Washington BILLIE LEE TURNER II professor of geography and director, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University ALEXANDER VARSHAVSY Smits Professor of Cell Biology, division of biology, California Institute of Technology DOUGLAS C. WALLACE professor of biochemistry, division of medical genetics, neurology, and anthropology; and chairman, genetics and molecular medicine, Emory University School of Medicine WATT W. WEBB professor, School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University BRUCE D. WINSTEIN professor of physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago ERIC R. WOLF Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York MARY LOU ZOBACK research geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif. LUTZ BIRNBAUMER* professor of anesthesiology, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine LAWRENCE M. GOLD* professor, department of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, University of Colorado LOWELL P. HAGER* professor, department of biochemistry, University of Illinois ARL E. WIEMAN* fellow, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado GREGORY A. PETSKO* Lucille P. Markey Professor, Rosenstiel Basic Medical Science Center, Brandeis University *picture not available

**NAS' NEW FOREIGN ASSOCIATES**
The April election of new members to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) included 15 foreign associates--nonvoting members with citizenship outside the United States--bringing the total of foreign associates to 301. Sherwood Rowland, NAS foreign secretary and a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of California,...

Howard Hughes Institute Makes A Big Showing In 1995 Class Of NAS Members

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of