Jacqueline K. Barton - 2019 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences National Academy of Sciences 2026-09-23 | Jacqueline K. Barton - 2019 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences
Research Briefings by Members Elected in 2021 and 2022 – Session 1 National Academy of Sciences 2023-06-15 | Dark Matter Illuminates Cholesterol MetabolismKathryn J. Moore, Jean and David Blechman Professor of Cardiology, and Director, Cardiovascular Research Center, New York University Grossman School of MedicineHuman Skin Color as a Biocultural Adaptation, and MoreNina G. Jablonski, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State UniversityReimagining a World without Breast CancerOlufunmilayo (Funmi) I. Olopade, Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics, and Director, Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics & Global Health, The University of ChicagoMaterials, Energy, Environment, And Life: Research At The National High Magnetic Field LaboratoryGregory S. Boebinger, Professor of Physics, Florida State University and Director, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Presentation Ceremony for Members Elected in 2022 National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-12 | Members elected in 2022 were introduced to their colleagues in the Academy and signed the "Registry of Membership."
Research Briefings by Members Elected in 2021 and 2022 – Session 3 National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-12 | Four new members presented their research and answer questions from the audience:Active Transport and Self-Organization in Living CellsMichael Shelley, Director, Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, and Lyttle Professor of Applied Math, Courant Institute, New York UniversitySomething New, Something Old – Antibody Therapy at a Time of COVIDArturo Casadevall, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Alfred and Jill Sommer Professor and Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthThe Stress Buffering Power of Parents (Until Adolescence)Megan R. Gunnar, Regents Professor, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, and Distinguished Teaching Professor, Institute of Child Development, University of MinnesotaBiodiversity and Autonomous Pest Control in AgroecosystemsIvette Perfecto, James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
Research Briefings by Members Elected in 2021 and 2022 – Session 2 National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-12 | Four new members presented their research and answer questions from the audience:Force, Direction and Persistence: How Cells CrawlJulie A. Theriot, Professor, University of Washington; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Chief Scientific Advisor, Allen Institute for Cell ScienceAnalyses from Near (Meteorites) and Far (Spacecraft): Complementary Approaches to Planetary ExplorationHarry Y. McSween, Jr., Chancellor's Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of TennesseGravity’s Fatal Attraction: Black Holes at the Centers of GalaxiesChung-Pei Ma, Judy Chandler Webb Professor in Physical Sciences, University of California at BerkeleyHuman Microbiome: Finding Friends Amongst the FoesJulie Segre, Senior Investigator, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
NAS 160th Annual Meeting- Presidents Address National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-12 | NAS President Marcia McNutt opened the meeting with her annual address to NAS members.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Kirk Bryan Jr., Alexander Agassiz Medal National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Bryan’s research with ocean and climate models has advanced the frontiers of understanding of the ocean’s role in Earth’s climate.Over his career, Bryan’s work has aimed to improve our understanding of ocean sciences. His work established the foundations for numerical modeling in ocean and climate science, providing insights into how the ocean works, focusing particular attention on the ocean’s role in the earth climate system and its anthropogenically induced changes. Bryan’s research, through his own contributions and those of his students and collaborators, has enormously influenced ocean and climate scientists worldwide.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Jerry X. Mitrovica, Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Mitrovica has advanced our understanding of the complex relationship between sea level and melting ice sheets and their impacts on human societies past and present. Mitrovica’s research explores the structure, dynamics, and evolution of the Earth system through a combination of advanced theoretical work, numerical modeling, and data analysis. He has developed models to better predict changes in sea level in response to glacial melting, with particular emphasis on critical events in ice age climate and on the sea-level fingerprints of modern polar ice sheet collapse. His work covers a range of topics including the connection of mantle convective flow to the geological record, the rotational stability of the Earth and other terrestrial planets, and ice age geodynamics. Mitrovica is not only a renowned lecturer and public speaker, but also serves as a mentor and inspiration for the next generation of critical thinkers.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: David J. McComas, Arctowski Medal National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | McComas has made seminal contributions through innovative mission and instrumentation development that have benefited and supported the entire scientific community and led ground-breaking observations, analysis, and discovery of fundamental physics of the heliosphere and the very local interstellar medium, the solar wind, and the Earth’s and other planetary magnetospheres. By developing new instrumentation and missions, taking measurements with novel techniques and of previously unexplored regions of the solar system, and innovatively analyzing and publishing these observations, McComas has made numerous and wide-ranging discoveries that have significantly advanced our knowledge and understanding of the global structure and evolution of the solar wind and revolutionized our understanding of its interaction with the local interstellar medium (LISM).He has led or leads the TWINS, IBEX, and IMAP NASA missions as well as space instruments for numerous other missions including the Parker Solar Probe, the ACE composition explorer, the New Horizons mission to Pluto, Juno to Jupiter, and Cassini to Saturn.McComas’ contributions include a deep commitment to international collaboration and dedication to mentoring and training the next generation of space physics explorers.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Harald F. Hess, James Prize in Science and Technology Integration National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Hess’s groundbreaking work in scanning probe, optical, and electron microscopy has transformed understanding in physics and biology. Fusing ideas from different scientific disciplines and industry, Hess’s work ranges from developing novel new forms of microscopy to refining existing microscopy technologies for the purpose of revealing new physical or biological attributes. Early in his career, Hess conceived, developed, and demonstrated forced evaporative cooling in magnetic traps, a technique later used by others to achieve Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic gases. Switching fields he developed various forms of low temperature scan probe microscopy, which enabled imaging of vortices in superconductors, electrons, and electronics states, as well as quanta of luminescence in semiconductors. The latter presented foundational observations that, in part, inspired photo-activated localization microscopy, or PALM a decade later.Hess advanced electron microscopy by innovating from his experience in the semiconductor and hard disk drive industry of high throughput inspection, and by applying it to biology. This enabled much larger 3D volumes of tissue to be imaged such as whole cells, extended neurons and even brain circuitry with enhancements to Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope. He also created an interferometric version of super-resolution optical microscopy called IPALM to bring optical resolution to the level approaching that of electron microscopy. Hess’s prolific and impactful career has influenced and created new technologies that both the physics and biology community have adopted and continue to apply to advance scientific understanding.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Thomas Vidick, Michael and Sheila Held Prize National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Vidick has deepened and transformed our understanding of quantum complexity and quantum cryptography.Vidick’s research is at the interface of theoretical computer science, quantum information and cryptography. His work has led to the proof that the class of languages in which membership may be established by quantum multiprover interactive proof systems is equal to the class of recursively enumerable languages.His contributions to quantum cryptography include the first proof of security of device-independent quantum key distribution. Vidick is also known for developing the first polynomial-time algorithm for computing ground states of gapped one-dimensional quantum spin systems.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Hongkui Zeng, Pradel Research Award National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Zeng has elevated our understanding of cell types and their connections in the mammalian brain through her research on how different neuronal types work together to process and transform visual information.Zeng’s groundbreaking contributions have led to a better understanding of neuronal diversity and neural circuits. Her research includes the development of transgenic mouse lines for marking and manipulating specific neuronal types; analysis of connectivity among brain areas with particular emphasis on connections between thalamus and cortex; and the use of single cell molecular methods to classify and characterize neurons and non-neuronal cells in cortex and other parts of the brain. Zeng is the Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science where she leads the creation of large-scale, open-access datasets and tools instrumental to accelerating neuroscience discovery. She has organized and led multidisciplinary teams to build the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas, the Common Coordinate Framework (CCF), and the transcriptomic and multimodal cell type taxonomy, which have been widely held as high-quality standards in the field.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Michelle Monje, Richard Lounsbery Award National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Monje’s pioneering work has fundamentally changed our view about the communication between neurons and glial cells in normal brain function and in neurological disorders, particularly brain cancers.Monje and her team investigate the role of neuronal activity over the control of both physiological and pathological processes of brain development, maturation, and oncogenesis, with particular focus on both the origins of pediatric brain tumors and the consequences of cancer treatment. Her groundbreaking findings showed that neuronal activity promotes adaptive myelination important for cognition and that neuronal activity drives malignant glioma progression through neuron-to-glioma synapses and paracrine factors. As both a physician and researcher, Monje plays an active role in bringing her findings into clinical settings. In collaboration with other labs, she identified a molecule on the surface of gliomas to target with CAR T-cell therapy, resulting in the virtual elimination of the tumors in mice. She is currently leading clinical trials for these and other treatment methods.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Nancy A. Moran, Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Moran’s pioneering research has expanded our understanding of microbial symbiosis and bacterial genome evolution.Her work has focused on the evolution and biology of intimate symbiosis between insect hosts and bacteria. Combining methods from molecular biology, genomics, experimental biology and evolutionary theory, Moran has demonstrated the evolutionary origins of symbioses, their ubiquity in the organismal world, and the consequences of intimate symbiosis in the evolution and ecology of symbionts and hosts. Moran and her research group have also characterized the distinctive gut communities in honeybees, providing a new and useful model system for understanding more complex communities of microbes that impact organismal health.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Tim Buschman, Troland Research Award National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Buschman has provided groundbreaking insights into the neural mechanisms of cognitive control, particularly how these mechanisms relate to attention and working memory. Buschman’s research combines cutting-edge experimental and theoretical approaches to provide a deeper understanding of how cognition arises from the dynamic interactions of populations of neurons. He has provided unique insight into the neural and computational mechanisms that are of central importance to cognitive psychology models of working memory, attention, and goal-directed behavior. In parallel to this work, Buschman and his research team are also making pioneering discoveries about principles of neural coding that underlie high-level cognition.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony - Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Public Welfare Medal National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | The National Academy of Sciences presented its 2023 Public Welfare Medal to mathematician, educator, and higher education advocate Freeman A. Hrabowski, III for his outstanding leadership in transforming U.S. science education and increasing cultural diversity within the science workforce. The medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Catherine Hartley, Troland Research Award National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Hartley has provided novel insights into the neural and cognitive mechanisms of age-related change in learning and decision making, expanding our understanding of the developing mind and brain.Her research examines changes in brain systems that support motivated learning and memory, unveiling developmental shifts in the cognitive computations that underlie adaptive, goal-directed behavior. Hartley’s groundbreaking research has looked at how neurodevelopmental changes bias which learning systems govern decisions. She has also conducted impactful research exploring how we learn about threats and control threat reactions. These lines of research have important implications for educational practices, understanding both adolescent risk-taking and the developmental emergence of psychopathology.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Huaijun Zhou, NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Zhou’s key contributions have significantly improved our fundamental understanding of livestock and poultry genomes. His research has had a major impact on selection and breeding of food animals for production efficiency and disease resistance, helping to address critical issues of food insecurity and global climate change.Zhou’s work examines animal and poultry genomes to better elucidate genetic disease resistance to bacterial and viral infections such as avian influenza, Newcastle disease, and Salmonella. His discoveries have generated critical insights into genetic mechanisms associated with increased productivity and resilience to heat stress and disease in livestock and informed genetic improvement in poultry to address food insecurity in low- and middle-income countries.Zhou is the Program Director of USAID-sponsored project Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Genomics to Improve Poultry, serving as a mentor for next-generation scientists in areas of need in the U.S. and developing countries.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, NAS Award for Chemical Sciences National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Matyjaszewski has made transformative contributions to polymer chemistry. His novel method of polymer synthesis has shaped the field and can be used to produce a wide range of polymers, copolymers, and hybrid materials with a wide range of commercial, biomedical, and environmental applications. Matyjaszewski is globally recognized for his atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) technique, which can be used to form polymers via radical mechanisms with unprecedented control of molecular weight and molecular architecture. Matyjaszewski and his group continue to innovate and develop new technologies through research on controlled radical polymerization, bioconjugates, hybrid materials, and catalysis. Throughout his career, Matyjaszewski has also served as a scientific leader and inspiration to others as a mentor, author, and inventor.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Jason S. McLellan, NAS Award in Molecular Biology National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | McLellan has made exceptional contributions to public health and medicine through his groundbreaking work on the molecular biology and structure of viral glycoproteins as applied to vaccine antigen design.McLellan pioneered the use of atomic-resolution structures to guide design of effective vaccines. These structural studies of proteins from human viral pathogens illuminate infection mechanisms while directly informing design of vaccines and therapeutics. His work has been instrumental to the development of successful vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and SARS-CoV-2 and are playing a key role in the development of vaccines and therapeutics targeting an array of additional pathogens.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Hye Kyung Timken, NAS Award for Chemistry in Service to Society National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Timken’s groundbreaking work on innovative catalysts has been instrumental in making oil refineries safer, and fossil fuels more environmentally friendly.Timken has been instrumental in leading the development and commercialization of Chevron’s ionic liquid-based ISOALKYTM Technology, which can be used by hundreds of oil refineries worldwide to improve process safety and reduce environmental impacts of fuel production. This technology has substantially decreased risks associated with gasoline production while providing more efficient conversion of petroleum to fuels.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Kevan M. Shokat, NAS Award for Scientific Discovery National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Shokat is a pioneer of modern chemical biology, using innovative approaches to develop powerful molecular tools to advance basic knowledge and combat devastating diseases. Shokat, a professor at both the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has established an innovative and productive interdisciplinary research program that has produced an array of powerful chemical methods for studying cell biology. Early in his career, Shokat developed orthogonal kinase-substrate pairs, powerfully demonstrating how useful chemogenetic tools could be in dissecting complex signaling pathways in vivo. Shokat’s recent discovery of inhibitors targeted to the commonly mutated cancer oncogene, K-Ras, has led to the discovery of the first drugs against a target previously considered undruggable. This breakthrough has led to a revolutionary new approach to cancer treatment that is already having a major medical impact.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony: Geoffrey W. Coates, NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Coates’ discoveries have revolutionized polymer recycling, materials for green hydrogen generation, and the synthesis of sustainable plastics. He is widely recognized for his discovery of efficient synthetic processes to make important high-performance plastics from biorenewable resources. Coates has made contributions to important new high-performance materials including the design of new polymeric materials for safe and practical energy conversion and storage applications. He continues to innovate with his most recent work on the development a novel multiblock polymer that could revolutionize the recycling of plastic waste.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony - Cozzarelli Prizes National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | The annual Cozzarelli Prize acknowledges papers that reflect scientific excellence and originality. The award was established in 2005 as the Paper of the Year Prize and was renamed in 2007 to honor late PNAS Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli.
2023 NAS Awards Ceremony National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-08 | Since 1886, the National Academy of Sciences has honored outstanding achievement in the physical, biological, and social sciences through its awards program. This annual awards ceremony honored the major contributions made by the 17 researchers, including an address by the 2023 Public Welfare Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.
The NASA Psyche Mission: An Electric Journey to a Metal World National Academy of Sciences 2023-03-06 | “Psyche” is both the name of an asteroid in the main belt, orbiting out past Mars, and the name of a NASA mission to visit that asteroid. The upcoming exploration of this asteroid marks an important first for humankind: We have sent people or robots to explore rocky bodies, like the Moon and Mars, and icy ones, like Europa and Enceladus, and gas-rich bodies like Jupiter, but never a body made mostly of metal. Psyche’s density, radar, and reflected light properties indicate that it is largely made of metal. If Psyche turns out to be what we think, we’ll be visiting a new kind of world.In this Day Prize Lecture, Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton will explain how the NASA mission came to be, who is working on her team, and how far they've come in building this spacecraft and preparing to launch in 2023. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, recipient of the 2020 Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship, is the lead of the NASA Psyche mission, Arizona State University Vice President of the Interplanetary Initiative, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company training and measuring collaborative problem-solving and critical thinking.
NAS Awards: Looking Forward - David M. Karl National Academy of Sciences 2022-08-05 | Previous NAS award recipients continue to achieve outstanding advancements in their fields. Over 120 have received a National Medal of Science, 79 have received a Nobel Prize, and 49 have a Lasker Award. See what David M. Karl is working on now, how the award affected his career, and the impact of his current work.
NAS159 Awards: The Science Explained National Academy of Sciences 2022-07-11 | Since 1886, the National Academy of Sciences has honored outstanding achievement in the physical, biological, and social sciences through its awards program. In this video, researches who received awards in 2022 discussed their careers and contributions to research.00:00 Wolfgang Baumeister, Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics02:43 Mahzarin Rustum Banaji, Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences6:27 Dan Jurafsky, Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences8:41 Samuel Harvey Moseley, Jr., James Craig Watson Medal10:51 John A. Rogers, James Prize in Science and Technology Integration12:33 Drew Weissman and 14:50 Katalin Karikó, jointly received the Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal16:57 Barney S. Graham, John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science19:14. Camillo De Lellis, Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics20:03 Amit Sahai, Michael and Sheila Held Prize22:20. Esther S. Takeuchi, NAS Award in Chemical Sciences24:30 Mary L. Droser, NAS Award in Early Earth and Life Sciences - Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal26:54 Carrie Partch, NAS Award in Molecular Biology29:04 Nancy Kanwisher, NAS Award in the Neurosciences31:08. David Lobell, NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences32:42 Edward Chang, Pradel Research Award34:50 Leah Somerville, Troland Research AwardWatch the full NAS159 awards ceremony: youtu.be/PGAwa32NKgsLearn more about NAS awards: http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/2023.html
NAS Awards: Looking Forward - Alex L. Kolodkin National Academy of Sciences 2022-07-11 | Previous NAS award recipients continue to achieve outstanding advancements in their fields. Over 120 have received a National Medal of Science, 79 have received a Nobel Prize, and 49 have a Lasker Award. See what Alex L. Kolodkin is working on now, how the award affected his career, and the impact of his current work.
2022 Research Briefings: Giulia Galli, The University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory National Academy of Sciences 2022-06-21 | Behind the Scenes: Stories of Atoms Forming Next Generation MaterialsGiulia Galli, Liew Family Professor of Electronic Structure and Simulations, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago and Argonne National LaboratoryMaterials are enablers of innovation and have brought about revolutionary changes to society: familiar examples are silicon used in transistors and metal oxides in batteries, devices that have become omnipresent in our daily lives. In this talk we explore how the fundamental understanding of the way atoms interact in materials leads to predicting forms of matter that enable next generation technologies. We achieve such insights by combining quantum mechanics, high performance computers and an ever-growing amount of data. Two outstanding challenges have recently inspired my work: the design of cheap and easily fabricated materials that efficiently capture solar energy, and the discovery of radically novel sensors and computers to swiftly move into the quantum information age. Elected in 2020, Galli represents the Academy’s section on Applied Physical Sciences.
NAS Awards: Looking Forward - Lori Holt National Academy of Sciences 2022-06-13 | Previous NAS award recipients continue to achieve outstanding advancements in their fields. Over 120 have received a National Medal of Science, 79 have received a Nobel Prize, and 49 have a Lasker Award. See what Lori Holti is working on now, how the award affected her career, and the impact of her current work.
John Holdren, 2022 Public Welfare Medalist National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-12 | John P. Holdren of Harvard University received the 2022 NAS Public Welfare Medal. He is being honored for his many years of work on behalf of science, in particular for his contributions as the longest-serving Science Advisor to the President since World War II. The medal is the National Academy of Sciences' most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.
2022 NAS Awards Ceremony National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-10 | Since 1886, the National Academy of Sciences has honored outstanding achievement in the physical, biological, and social sciences through its awards program. This annual awards ceremony honored the major contributions made by the 19 researchers, including an address by the 2022 Public Welfare Medalist John P. Holdren.
2022 NAS Annual Meeting: Special Session on the Situation in Ukraine National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-10 | This session provided an update from the National Academies staff who are working directly with their international colleagues to provide support during this time of crisis: Vaughan Turekian, executive director of the NRC's Policy and Global Affairs Division; Franklin Carrero-Martinez, senior director for global sustainability; and Rita Guenther, a senior program officer whose portfolio includes Russia. After their review of the current situation in Ukraine, its short- and medium-term implications for Ukrainian science, and the actions that the NAS is undertaking in response, a Q/A session was held.
2022 Annual Meeting: Presentation Ceremony for Members Elected in 2021 National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-06 | Members elected in 2021 are introduced to their colleagues in the Academy and sign the "Registry of Membership." NAS membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
2022 Annual Meeting: Presentation Ceremony for Members Elected in 2020 National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-06 | Members elected in 2020 are introduced to their colleagues in the Academy and sign the "Registry of Membership." NAS membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
2022 Annual Meeting: Presentation Ceremony for Members Elected in 2019 National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-06 | Members elected in 2019 are introduced to their colleagues in the Academy and sign the "Registry of Membership." NAS membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
2022 Research Briefings: Paula T. Hammond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Sticky Particles Designed for Better MedicinePaula T. Hammond, Institute Professor and Department Head, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyElectrostatically charged macromolecules -- polyelectrolytes -- are particularly interesting for drug delivery and biomedical imaging because their ionic nature enables water solubility for stealth properties in the blood stream, and charge behavior that guides their surface interactions with certain cells and tissues. Along with surface charge, hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions can lead to nanoparticles that bind with strong affinity for certain target tissues. Polyelectrolyte nanolayers that have specificity for ovarian tumor cell types can aid in transforming a ‘cold’ immune environment to an active one for immunotherapy, and a macromolecular carrier can be designed to present positive charge in combination with charge shielding groups to yield nanocarriers capable of ‘sticky’ transport deep within cartilage for sustained treatment of osteoarthritis. Elected in 2019, Hammond represents the Academy's section on Engineering Sciences.
2022 Research Briefings: Ana Maria Cuervo, Albert Einstein College of Medicine National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Let’s Talk Trash! Cellular Recycling on the Basis for Healthy AgingAna Maria Cuervo, Professor of Developmental and Molecular Biology, co-director of the Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einstein College of MedicineAdvances in our understanding of the drivers of aging has revealed intracellular quality control as a central protective mechanism against the loss of function and increase vulnerability to disease associated with aging. Cuervo investigates autophagy, a cellular process responsible for removal and recycling of any damage or non-functional cellular component. Cuervo discusses how failure of autophagy with age is on the basis of severe age-related diseases, such as neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic conditions of aging. Lastly, she comments on the gerotherapeutic potential of targeting autophagy in these conditions. Elected in 2019, Cuervo represents the Academy's section on Medical Physiology and Metabolism.
2022 Research Briefings: Pamela C. Ronald, University of California, Davis National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Breeding Crops for Resilience to a Changing ClimatePamela C. Ronald, Distinguished Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center, University of California, DavisA major goal for food and agricultural research is to increase the resiliency of agricultural systems in the face of climate change. Ronald will describe how genetic approaches are being used to generate the next generation of rice crops that can tolerate environmental stress and resist disease. These approaches are helping farmers thrive in challenging conditions. Elected in 2019, Ronald represents the Academy's section on Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences.
2022 Research Briefings: Suzanne Staggs, Princeton University National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | The Universe Then and Now: Predicting the Present from the Primordial Past with a Big Dish in the Atacama DesertSuzanne Staggs, Henry deWolf Smyth Professor of Physics, Princeton UniversityMeasurements of its remnant radiation reveal a surprisingly simple picture of the primordial universe when it was a few hundred thousand years old. Cosmologists have used them to define a cosmological model that describes the large scale properties of the universe and their evolution over time. By extrapolating the model forward a few billion years, its predictions for the present-day universe can be compared to more local astrophysical measurements to see if it breaks. Staggs will describe some recent advances, in the context of her work building instruments to measure the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation. Elected in 2020, Staggs represents the Academy's section on Physics.
2022 Research Briefings: Adrian R. Krainer, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Sense, Missense, Nonsense, and Antisense: mRNA-targeting TherapiesAdrian R. Krainer, St. Giles Foundation Professor, Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryMessenger RNA (mRNA) is now a commonplace term, thanks to the wide deployment of Covid vaccines. mRNA-vaccine development involves enzymatic synthesis of mRNA in a test tube. In contrast, natural mRNA is produced in the cell’s nucleus as a precursor that then undergoes several editing steps. One such step is RNA splicing, which involves cutting and pasting to remove non-coding segments, before each mature mRNA is exported to the cytoplasm to serve as a template for the synthesis of a protein. Krainer discusses how short synthetic nucleic acids, called antisense oligonucleotides, can be designed to modulate the RNA-splicing process to make effective drugs. Elected in 2020, Krainer represents the Academy's section on Biochemistry.
2022 Research Briefings: Carl June, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Carl June, Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, and Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of MedicineJune will share the discovery of CAR T cells, a promising new form of therapy of cancer that offers the prospect of curing cancer using the immune system. The notion of using the immune system to fight cancer is an old idea. Over a century ago bacteria were ground up and injected into patients with late-stage cancers. However, we now have precise tools like CRISPR/Cas9 to rewrite the DNA code, offering the possibility to improve the immune system over what has evolved in a Darwinian fashion. June will discuss the promises and challenges faced by the evolving CAR T cell industry. Elected in 2020, June represents the Academy's section on Immunology and Inflammation.
2022 Research Briefings: Harmit S. Malik, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | How Genetic Conflicts Shape Viruses, Immunity, and GenomesHarmit S. Malik, HHMI Investigator; Professor, Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research CenterHarmit Malik studies the causes and consequences of genetic conflicts that take place between different genomes (e.g., host-virus interactions) or between components of the same genome (e.g., chromosomal competition at centromeric regions). He is interested in understanding these "molecular arms races" and how they drive recurrent genetic innovation, from the perspective of both evolutionary biology and human disease. His host-virus studies have led to evolution-guided approaches to study and augment antiviral responses, and reveal an ancient history of viruses and virus-driven innovation (‘paleovirology’). His chromosomal studies reveal how competitions during meiosis may drive the evolution of genomes and even the origin of species. Elected in 2019, Malik represents the Academy's section on Genetics.
2022 Research Briefings: Bryna R. Kra, Northwestern University National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Dynamical Approaches to Combinatorial ProblemsBryna R. Kra, Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Mathematics, Northwestern UniversityA fundamental question in mathematics is when objects have rigid structure and when they are completely disordered. Kra studies this question in the context of dynamical systems, describing invariants that characterize long term changes in a system. While these results describe the evolution of mathematical systems, Kra uses them to show the existence of structures in seemingly static problems and proves that certain infinite patterns exist in any sufficiently large subset of integers. Elected in 2019, Kra represents the Academy's section on Mathematics.
2022 Research Briefings: Marilyn A. Brown, Georgia Institute of Technology National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Localized Roadmaps to Fight the Climate CrisisMarilyn A. Brown, Regents Professor and Director, Climate and Energy Policy Lab, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of TechnologyAvoiding costly climate change necessitates actions at every political scale and across all sectors of the economy. The climate countdown has begun, but progress is slow. One reason is that we lack localized roadmaps that provide people at all scales of society a set of solutions that they can enthusiastically support. The research underpinning the “Drawdown Georgia” project illustrates how robust place-specific plans for climate action can be derived from foundational global and national work. Its replicable methodology advances the science of carbon abatement by incorporating solution interdependencies, by spanning both carbon sources and sinks, and by emphasizing beyond-carbon societal costs and benefits. By focusing on the 2030 timeframe, Drawdown Georgia highlights pathways for immediate action that can help put jurisdictions and states on a road toward net-zero emissions by mid-century. While the specifics of this research are unique to Georgia, our approach is generalizable. It can easily be replicated around the world, because solutions happen locally and they scale in real life against the backdrop of day-to-day issues that matter to people and communities. Elected in 2020, Brown represents the Academy's section on Human Environmental Sciences.
2022 Research Briefings: Robert B. Cialdini, Arizona State University National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Persuasion via Social Norms: A (Non)Polluting Engine for Environmental ActionRobert B. Cialdini, Regents' Professor Emeritus, Departments of Psychology and of Marketing, Arizona State UniversitySocial norms are remarkably powerful in directing human action. Communications that use social norms-based appeals for environmental action have proven significantly more persuasive than those that use traditional appeals. But, this motivating power is often used incorrectly or even counterproductively. Cialdini explains how to avoid THE BIG MISTAKE of social norms messaging and how, instead, to maximize its positive impact. Elected in 2019, Cialdini represents the Academy's section on Psychological and Cognitive Sciences.
2022 Research Briefings: Anna K. (Kay) Behrensmeyer, Smithsonian Institution National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | Taphonomy, Human Evolution, and the Deep Time Fossil RecordAnna K. (Kay) Behrensmeyer, Research Curator and Senior Scientist, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian InstitutionNearly all organisms that have ever lived were recycled into new life rather than becoming fossilized. Although fossils provide fascinating windows into the history of life on Earth, what we see through these windows depends on ecological, chemical, and geological processes that controlled destruction versus preservation of organic remains. Taphonomy is the study of these processes and the special conditions that allow some remains to be preserved, helping us to decode the limited samples in the fossil record. In human evolution, taphonomy provides evidence for how our ancestors lived and died, what they ate, and how their ecological roles changed over millions of years. In paleontology, taphonomy allows more accurate understanding of evolution, extinction, and ecology through earth history and is even contributing to the search for life on Mars. Elected in 2020, Behrensmeyer represents the Academy's section on Anthropology.
2022 Presidents Address: Marcia McNutt National Academy of Sciences 2022-05-05 | NAS President Marcia McNutt will open the 159th NAS Annual Meeting with her annual address to NAS members.
0:00 / 2:13NAS Awards: Looking Forward - Jay Shendure National Academy of Sciences 2022-03-08 | Previous NAS award recipients continue to achieve outstanding advancements in their fields. Over 120 have received a National Medal of Science, 79 have received a Nobel Prize, and 49 have a Lasker Award. See what Jay Shendure is working on now, how the award affected his career, and the impact of his current work.
NAS Awards: Looking Forward - David Reitze National Academy of Sciences 2022-02-08 | Previous NAS award recipients continue to achieve outstanding advancements in their fields. Over 120 have received a National Medal of Science, 79 have received a Nobel Prize, and 49 have a Lasker Award. See what David Reitze is working on now, how the award affected his career, and the impact of his current work.
