BY NICOLE KRESGE 

This past spring, six American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology members were elected to the National Academy of Sciences and eight were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Vann Bennett, Mina J. Bissell, James E. Haber, Lynn M. Riddiford, Kevin Struhl and Zena Werb were honored with election to the National Academy of Sciences. They are among the academy’s 72 new members and 18 foreign associates selected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. This brings the total number of active academy members to 2,097.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furthering of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

Samuel Herbert Barondes, Thomas Blumenthal, Sunney I. Chan, G. Marius Clore, Benjamin D. Hall, Timothy James Ley, Roy R. Parker and Thomas Christian Südhof were among the 229 leaders in the sciences, social sciences, the humanities, the arts, business and public affairs who were elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. These new fellows join one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

Established in 1780 by John Adams and other founders of the nation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current projects focus on science and technology; global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture and education.

Samuel Herbert Barondes is the Jeanne and Sanford Robertson professor of neurobiology and psychiatry as well as director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Vann Bennett is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and James B. Duke professor of cell biology in the departments of cell biology, biochemistry and neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.