Four Yale professors were eligible to be elected to the academy, which consists of scientists who make recommendations in areas such as natural sciences, medicine and engineering, and is one of the highest degrees to be awarded to a scientist or engineer. Serap Aksoy, Hui Cao, Lieping Chen and Debra Fischer are among the selected names.
In addition, the Academy has broken a record in the number of women elected to the academy in a year by selecting 59 women this year. This number was noted as a success that three of Yale’s selected four-man squad were women.
“The historic number of women elected this year reflects their critical contribution in many areas of science, as well as our collective effort to recognize the core value of these contributions and the growing diversity in our ranks,” said Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences. “I am pleased to welcome all our new members and look forward to participating in work with them,” he said.
A Turkish among the members
Serap Aksoy, professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health and Deputy Head of the Department of Epidemiology; Her research focuses on the biological and epidemiological basis of mammalian host-pathogen-insect vector interactions, particularly tsetse flies and the parasitic African trypanosomes they carry.
In his lab at Yale, he is trying to develop new methods to eventually reduce tsetse populations in the field or reduce their ability to spread diseases. His research in Uganda is on population genetics of flies and parasites. A few years ago, Aksoy also achieved another success by creating the gene map of the tsetse fly, which is the carrier of the deadly sleeping disease in Africa.
The number of active members is 2461
Hui Cao focuses on understanding and controlling quantum optical processes in nanostructures. Broadly speaking, his research concerns quantum effects and nano-photonic devices for both basic physical studies and applications. His lab aims to better understand and control light emission, scattering, absorption and laserisation in complex photonic nanostructures for a wide range of applications.
Lieping Chen, United Technologies Corporation Professor of Cancer Research and professor of immunobiology, dermatology and medicine (medical oncology), and co-leader of Cancer Immunology at the Yale Cancer Center. Their work provided an important basis for the development of subsequent immunotherapies to provide more effective immune responses against cancer.
Debra Fischer, Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy. Fischer, working on exoplanets, discovered hundreds of exoplanets in 1999, including the first known multi-planetary system. She is working on new tools to detect small rocky planets. From 2003 to 2008, he led an international consortium seeking planets around metal-rich stars; More than 50 new extrasolar planets were detected with this project.
The newly elected academy members increased the total number of active members to 2,461 and the total number of international members to 511.
