Donna Krupa
(301) 634-7209
dkrupa@the-aps.org
Bethesda, Md (May 7, 2007) — Four members of The American Physiological Society (APS; www.The-APS.org) were elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences on May 1 in recognition of their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” They were among the 72 new members and 18 foreign associates selected during the academy’s 144th annual meeting.
The four APS members selected to the National Academy are:
John G Hildebrand, professor of neurobiology, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, entomology and molecular and cellular biology at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is also the director of the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology at the university. He studies the insect nervous system to discover fundamental principles common to many or all nervous systems.
Eve E. Marder, professor of neuroscience, department of biology, and the Volen Center for Complex Systems at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. She is the editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology and is president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience. Her research focuses on how interactions between neurons give rise to the function of neuronal circuits.
Gerald I. Shulman, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of medicine and cellular molecular physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. His research focuses on insulin resistance with an aim to develop therapeutic targets to reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Masao Ito, director, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Saitama, Japan. His research centers on the molecular and cellular basis for learning and memory. He has served as the president of the Physiological Society of Japan and is an honorary member of the APS.
The National Academy of Sciences has 2,025 active members and 387 foreign associates, and more than 200 of them have won the Nobel Prize. The academy is a private organization formed in 1863 to provide expert advice to the federal government on scientific and technological issues. The academy was formed with the approval of Congress and President Abraham Lincoln.
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Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. The American Physiological Society has been an integral part of this scientific discovery process since it was established in 1887.