VOLUME 12, NUMBER 21 • MAY 4, 2001

Three Rockefeller Professors Elected to National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 72 new members this week. Among them are three members of The Rockefeller University faculty: Jeffrey M. Friedman, John Kuriyan and Ralph M. Steinman.

Professors Jeffrey M. Friedman, John Kuriyan and Ralph M. Steinman (top to bottom) were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Friedman is the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Director of the Starr Center for Human Genetics and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His lab studies the molecular mechanisms regulating body weight. His lab cloned the mouse ob gene and found it encodes a novel hormone, leptin, that reduces body fat when injected into mice.

Kuriyan is the Patrick E. and Beatrice M. Haggerty Professor, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His laboratory explores how particular structures and atomic interactions underlie the transmission of information from the cell surface to the nucleus and the components of chromosomal DNA replication.

Steinman is the Henry G. Kunkel Professor, head of the Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology and Director of the Christopher H. Browne Center for Immunology and Immune Diseases. Steinman investigates the fundamental mechanisms of cellular immunity, including studies aimed at developing immune-based therapies to fight tumors and designing treatments for infectious diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance 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.

Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. The election of Professors Friedman, Kuriyan and Steinman brings the total number of current Rockefeller University faculty who are Academy members to 35