Three faculty members named to National Academy of Sciences

In recognition of their excellence in original scientific research, three UC Berkeley faculty members have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

The three new members are:

James M. Berger, professor of molecular and cell biology;

Daniel A. Portnoy, professor of molecular and cell biology and of public health;

James A. Sethian, professor of mathematics.

A newly elected foreign associate, Luis Rosero-Bixby, is spending the next few years as a visitor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Demography. Rosero-Bixby is a professor in the School of Statistics and in the Health Research Institute at the University of Costa Rica in San José.

The new members will be inducted into the academy next April during its 149th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

There are currently 2,179 active NAS members. The academy is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Established in 1863, it has served to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art” whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government.