On May 3, 2011, the National Academy of Sciences elected 72 new members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, or Institute of Medicine is considered one of the highest professional honors among scientists, engineers, and health care professionals. Each year, new members are elected by current members based on outstanding achievement and commitment to service. Visit the NAS, NAE, and IOM membership sites for more information.

• National Academy of Sciences Members Page
• National Academy of Engineering Members Page
• Institute of Medicine Members Page
• Frequently Asked Questions About Membership

The National Academy of Sciences membership consists of approximately 2,100 members and 420 foreign associates, each of whom is affiliated with one of 31 disciplinary sections. The Institute of Medicine has more than 1,800 members and foreign associates. The National Academy of Engineering has more than 2,000 peer-elected members and foreign associates.

More than 300 NAS, NAE, and IOM members are Nobel laureates.

The National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation have been awarded to more than 250 of our members.

Each year, more than 6,000 Academy members and other volunteer experts serve on hundreds of study committees that examine some of society's most pressing issues. The results of their efforts frequently form the basis of public policies for decades to come. In addition, members of our standing committees and roundtables provide ongoing advice and guidance on a range of issues.

• Studies under way
• Read more about the study process or watch a video
• Roles of a committee chair

More than 900 individuals have been awarded the lifetime designation of National Associate of the National Research Council to formally honor their extraordinary service in serving on committees or acting as report reviewers.  New designations are made each year.

Richard Alley Receives Outstanding Climate Science Communication Award

August 29, 2011 –National Academy of Sciences member Richard B. Alley has been awarded the first Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. The $10,000 prize, presented by Climate One at the Commonwealth Club, recognizes a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to the public in a clear and compelling fashion. Alley, the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the EMS Environmental Institute at Pennsylvania State University, is the host of “Earth: The Operators’ Manual,” a three-part documentary nationally televised on PBS, and has recently co-authored The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change. Alley also chaired a Research Council committee that authored the 2001 report Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises. The award is named after the late NAS member Stephen H. Schneider, an internationally acclaimed scientist recognized for research, policy analysis, and outreach in climate change.   

Several IOM Members Voted Among Most Influential Physician Execs

May 9, 2011 – Twenty-two of the 50 individuals recognized by Modern Physician and Modern Healthcare as the most influential physician executives of 2011 are members of the Institute of Medicine. These 22, including IOM’s president Harvey V. Fineberg, and their positions on the list follow:    

• Donald Berwick (2)
• Carolyn Clancy (3)
• Regina Benjamin (4)
• Thomas Frieden (5)
• Francis Collins (6)
• Margaret Hamburg (7)
• Harvey Fineberg (8)
• Mark Chassin (9)
• Glenn Steele Jr. (13)
• Gary Gottlieb (18)
• Paul Tang (21)
• Tadataka Yamada (25)
• Brent James (26
• Christine Cassel (30)
• Georges Benjamin (31)
• Darrell Kirch (32)
• Jonathan Perlin (33)
• William Roper (35)
• Robert Brook (37)
• Risa Lavizzo-Mourey (38)
• Arnold Milstein (40)
• David Blumenthal (41)

Vest to Receive Prestigious Vannevar Bush Award

March 31, 2011 - NAE President Charles Vest will receive the National Science Board's 2011 Vannevar Bush Award "for his outstanding contributions to both his scientific field and to the scientific community at large," the board announced. Vest will be presented with the medal on May 10 at a ceremony to be held at the U.S. Department of State. NSB is the policymaking body for the National Science Foundation and advises the U.S. president and Congress on science and engineering issues.

• NSF News Release
• Vest Bio

Members Receive National Medals of Science, Technology

Nov. 18, 2010 – President Obama awarded the 2009 National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation to several members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering scientific research that has led to better understanding of the world around us, as well as to innovations and technologies that give the United States its global economic edge. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness, standard of living, and quality of life through technological innovation.

Members who received the National Medal of Science:

• Yakir Aharanov (NAS)
• Stephen J. Benkovic (NAS/IOM)
• Esther M. Conwell (NAS/NAE)
• Marye Anne Fox (NAS)
• Susan L. Lindquist (NAS/IOM)
• Mortimer Mishkin (NAS/IOM)
• David B. Mumford (NAS)
• Stanley B. Prusiner (NAS/IOM)
• Warren M. Washington (NAE)
• Amnon Yariv (NAS/NAE)

Member who received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation:

• Harry W. Coover (NAE)

Watch the award ceremony on whitehouse.gov

NAS Member Shares Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Oct. 11, 2010 – With two other economists, NAS member Peter A. Diamond was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for analysis of markets with search frictions – markets in which buyers and sellers do not always find one another immediately, for example a labor market in which there are both employers with job vacancies and unemployed job seekers.

U.S. State Department Appoints New Science Envoys

Sept. 17, 2010 -- Former NSF director and NAS member Rita Colwell and Lehigh University president and NAE member Alice Gast have been appointed at the request of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve as science envoys to Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. Science envoys are appointed “to fulfill President Obama’s mandate to foster scientific and technological collaboration,” Clinton said recently. In November 2009, former NAS President Bruce Alberts, former NIH Director and IOM member Elias Zerhouni, and Nobel prize-winning chemist and NAS member Ahmed Zewail were named science envoys to Muslim-majority countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia.

NAS President, NAE Members Named to Secretary of Energy Advisory Board

Aug. 11, 2010 -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced that NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone will serve as a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, representing the Academy. Also joining Cicerone are five members of the National Academy of Engineering: Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corp.; Nicholas M. Donofrio, retired executive vice president of innovation and technology, IBM Corp.; Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman of Bank of America and former chairman and CEO of DuPont; William J. Perry, former U.S. secretary of defense and now a professor at Stanford University; and Arthur H. Rosenfeld, a guest faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and former commissioner of the California Energy Commission.

The 12-member board was re-established to advise Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on basic and applied research, economic and national security policy, educational issues, operational issues, and other activities related to DOE’s mission. Chu himself is an NAS member.