Sidebar: NAS's New Foreign Associates
Sidebar: New NAS Members, 1997
Even so, the actual percentage of members from United States corporations is still minuscule-less than 5 percent. The academy accepted only one or two people from companies in each of the past few elections.
There's no explanation for the sudden attention paid to scientists and engineers from industry, according to Peter Raven, the NAS home secretary and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. The confidential selection process is supposed to be based solely on scientific achievements. But Raven points out, "we've always had one or two who work as fellows at an IBM, for instance."
For Anthony J. DeMaria, election to NAS is gratifying and humbling. As chief executive of Bloomfield, Conn.-based DeMaria Electro-Optics Systems, he is one of the inductees who hail from industry. Unlike most NAS members, he spent his career in a corporate environment ...
