WASHINGTON—The National Academy of Sciences has elected a treasurer and four members to serve on its governing council.

Astrophysicist Jeremiah P. Ostriker has been elected to a second four-year term as treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) beginning July 1, 2012. Ostriker was elected to membership in the Academy in 1974. He is currently professor in the department of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. As treasurer, Ostriker will continue to oversee financial and budgetary activities of the NAS and the National Research Council, which conducts independent science, engineering, and health policy studies under a congressional charter and has an annual budget of approximately $300 million.

Councilors elected to three-year terms beginning July 1, 2012, are: John G. Hildebrand, Regents Professor and Head, department of neuroscience, University of Arizona; Richard P. Lifton, Sterling Professor and Chair, department of genetics, Yale University School of Medicine; Rowena G. Matthews, G. Robert Greenberg Professor Emeritus of Biological Chemistry and Research Professor Emeritus, Life Science Institute, University of Michigan; and Maria T. Zuber, E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Head, department of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit society of distinguished scholars established by an Act of Congress in 1863, which charges the NAS to provide independent advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. This advisory role is carried out today by the National Research Council — which was created under the NAS charter in 1916 — in collaboration with the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, which were founded under the NAS charter in 1964 and 1970, respectively.

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