New Women Members of the National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences recently announced the selection of 84 new members. There are now 2,291 living members of the nation’s most prestigious society of scientific scholars.

The National Academy of Sciences does not publish data on the gender of its members. But according to a WIAReport analysis of the group of 84 new members, 24, or 28.6 percent are women. The number and percentage of women new members is identical to a year ago. In 2014, women made up 21.4 percent of the new NAS members.

Here are brief biographies of the 24 women who were elected members of the National Academy of Sciences this year.

(L to R) Julia Bailey-Serres, Bonnie Bartel, Helen M. Blau, Katharine V. Cashman, Eileen M. Crimmins, and Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Julia Bailey-Serres is the director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology and professor of genetics in the department of botany and plant sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Bailey-Serres is a graduate of the University of Utah and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Bonnie Bartel is the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She has served on the faculty at Rice since 1995. Dr. Bartel is a graduate of Bethel College and holds a Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Helen M. Blau is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor in the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. She is a graduate of the University of York in England and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University.

Katharine V. Cashman is a professor of volcanology at the University of Bristol in Clifton, England. She went to the United Kingdom in 2011 after teaching at Princeton University and the University of Oregon. Dr. Cashman holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Eileen M. Crimmins is the AARP Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Crimmins is a graduate of Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in demography from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer L. Eberhardt is an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University in California. She has been affiliated with Stanford University since 1998. Dr. Eberhardt is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 2014, Dr. Eberhardt was named a MacArthur Fellow.

(L to R) Mary Lou Guerinot, Hopi E. Hoekstra, Judith T. Irvine, Marsha I. Lester, Andrea J. Liu, and Nancy A. Lynch

Mary Lou Guerinot is the Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences and a professor in the department of biological sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Ph.D. in biology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Hopi E. Hoekstra is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the departments of organismic and evolutionary biology and of molecular and cellular biology of Harvard University. Dr. Hoeskstra is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Judith T. Irvine is the Edward Sapir Collegiate Professor of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Michigan. She has served on the faculty at the University of Michigan since 2000 after previously teaching at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Dr. Irvine earned a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.

Marsha I. Lester is the Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor in th department of chemistry of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is the editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics. Dr. Lester is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City.

Andrea J. Liu, is the Hepburn Professor in the department of physics and astronomy of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Liu is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Nancy A. Lynch is the NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Lynch is a graduate of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York System and earned a Ph.D. at MIT.

(L to R) Hazel R. Markus, Susan Marqusee, Maryam Mirzakhani, Susan A. Murphy, Claire L. Parkinson, and Maureen E. Raymo

Hazel R. Markus is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences in the department of psychology of Stanford University. She has served on the Stanford faculty since 1994. A native of London, England, Dr. Markus is a graduate of California State University, San Diego. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.

Susan Marqusee is the Eveland Warren Endowed Chair Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology in the department of molecular and cell biology, and the director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been at Berkeley since 1992. Professor Marqusee is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a medical degree and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Maryam Mirzakhani is a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. She joined the Stanford faculty in 2008 after teaching at Princeton University. A native of Teheran, Iran, Dr. Mirzakhani is a graduate of the Sharif University of Technology. She earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Susan A. Murphy is the Herbert E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of Statistics at the Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan. She joined the faculty in 1998 after teaching at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Murphy is a graduate of Louisiana State University and holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Claire L. Parkinson is a climate change senior scientist in the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts and earned a Ph.D. in geography/climatology at Ohio State University.

Maureen E. Raymo is the Lamont Research Professor and director of the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository at the  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, New York. Professor Raymo is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

(L to R) Melanie S. Sanford, Amita Sehgal, Geraldine Seydoux, Pamela Soltis, Anne C. Stone, and Megan C. Urry

Melanie S. Sanford is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Professor Sanford is a graduate of Yale University and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Amita Sehgal is the John Herr Musser Professor of Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. A native of India, she earned a master’s degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India and a Ph.D. in cell biology and genetics at Cornell University.

Geraldine Seydoux is a professor in the department of molecular biology and genetic at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Professor Seydoux is a graduate of the University of Maine. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Princeton University.

Pamela Soltis is a distinguished professor and curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dr. Soltis is a graduate of Central College in Pella, Iowa. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in botany at the University of Kansas.

Anne C. Stone is a professor and director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University in Tempe. Professor Stone is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Pennsylvania State University.

Megan C. Urry, is the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, chair of the department of physics, and director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Yale University. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Massachusetts and holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.