New Women Members of the National Academy of Sciences

Election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences is considered one of greatest honors for members of the scientific community. Recently, the academy elected 84 new members to its ranks. Of the 84 new members, 26, or 31 percent, are women.

(L to R) Top row: Susan C. Athey, Nancy Bonini, Susan L. Brantley, Robin M. Canup, Yuan Chang, Xinnian Dong, Patricia M. Dove, Carol S. Dweck, and Susan Gelman. Middle row: Rachel Green, Beatrice H. Hahn, Tina Henkin, Guinevere Kauffman, Barbara H. Liskov, Bonnie J. McCay, Sabeeha Merchant, and Ann E. Nelson. Bottom row: Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Mary Power, Natasha V. Raikhel, Marcia J. Rieke, Yasuko Rikihisa, Gisela T. Storz, Ruth J. Williams, Melinda A. Zeder, and Xiaowei Zhuang.

Here are brief biographies of the 26 women elected to the academy this year.

Susan C. Athey is a professor of economics at Harvard University. She has been on the Harvard faculty since 2006. Dr. Athey is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Nancy Bonini is the Lucille B. Williams Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bonini is a graduate of Princeton University and holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin.

Susan L. Brantley is Distinguished Professor of Geosciences, at the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University. She has been on the Penn State faculty since 1986. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees, all from Princeton University.

Robin M. Canup is the associate vice president of the Planetary Sciences Directorate of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. She joined the Southwest Research Institute in 1998. A graduate of Duke University, she earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado.

Yuan Chang is professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the medical school at the University of Utah.

Xinnian Dong is the Arts and Sciences Endowed Professor of Biology at Duke University. She has been on the Duke faculty since 1992. A graduate of Wuhan University in China, she earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Northwestern University.

Patricia M. Dove is the C.P. Miles Professor of Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. Dove earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. at Princeton University.

Carol S. Dweck is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She has been on the Stanford faculty since 2004 and previously taught for 15 years at Columbia University. A graduate of Barnard College, Dr. Dweck earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University.

Susan Gelman is the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Gelman is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and holds a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.

Rachel Green is a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Green joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1998. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University.

Beatrice H. Hahn is a professor at the Pereleman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the Penn faculty last year after teaching at the University of Alabama Birmingham. She is a graduate of the University of Munich Medical School.

Tina Henkin is a professor of microbiology at Ohio State University. Dr. Henkin earned a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Guinevere Kauffman is a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. A native of California, she studies at the University of Cape Town before earning a Ph.D. the University of Cambridge.

Barbara H. Liskov is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Liskov joined the MIT faculty in 1972 and was promoted to full professor in 1980. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University.

Bonnie J. McCay is the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in the department of human ecology at Rutgers University. Dr. McCay is a graduate of Portland State University. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University.

Sabeeha Merchant is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles. She holds bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Ann E. Nelson is a professor of physics at the University of Washington. She joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 1994.

Monica Olvera de la Cruz is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of material science and engineering and professor of chemistry at Northwestern University. She joined the Northwestern faculty in 1986 and was named full professor in 1998. She is a graduate of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and earned a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Cambridge.

Mary Power is a professor of integrative biology at the University of California Berkeley. Professor Power joined the Berkeley faculty in 1987 and was promoted to full professor in 1996. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University and a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington.

Natasha V. Raikhel is the Distinguished Professor of Plant Cell Biology at the University of California Riverside. She joined the faculty in 2001 after teaching at Michigan State University. She holds a master’s degree from Leningrad State University and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the Institute of Cytology of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad.

Marcia J. Rieke is the Regents Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. She joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1979. She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Here is a video discussing Dr. Rieke’s work.

Yasuko Rikihisa is professor of veterinary biosciences at Ohio State University. Professor Rikihisa holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School.

Gisela T. Storz is deputy director of the Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Storz received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988.

Ruth J. Williams is the Charles Lee Powell Distinguished Professor in the department of mathematics at the University of California San Diego. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford University.

Melinda A. Zeder is curator of old world archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. She joined the Smithsonian in 1981. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology, all from the University of Michigan.

Xiaowei Zhuang is professor of chemistry, chemical biology, and physics at Harvard University. She joined the Harvard faculty in 2001 and was promoted to full professor five years later.  A graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China, Professor Zhuang earned a Ph.D. in physics at the University of California at Berkeley.