13 Frontiers of Science Alumni Elected to NAS Membership

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced today that 13 Frontiers of Science alumni have been elected to membership in the NAS in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

In 2026, the NAS elected a total of 120 members and 25 international members covering all fields of science, bringing its total membership to 2,705 active members and 557 international members. The Frontiers alumni elected today bring the total number of Frontiers of Science alumni to 387 members – 11.8% of the NAS membership.

Newly elected Frontiers alumni and their affiliations at the time of election to the National Academy of Sciences are:

Ehlmann, Bethany; professor of geological sciences, director, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and Provost’s Chair, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder

Fee, Michale S.; Glen V. and Phyllis F. Dorflinger Professor of Neuroscience and department head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

Gibson, Sarah; senior scientist, High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo.

He, Chuan; John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago

Hotamisligil, Gokhan S.; James Stevens Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism, Department of Molecular Metabolism, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston

Hungate, Bruce A.; regents’ professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

Kelly, Robert L.; professor emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming, Laramie

Kochanek, Christopher; professor of astronomy, Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus

Ralph, Daniel C.; F.R. Newman Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Saulson, Peter R.; professor of physics emeritus, Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y

Simoncelli, Eero; Silver Professor and professor of neural science and data science, Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York City

Warinner, Christina; professor of anthropology and human evolutionary biology, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Waymouth, Robert M.; Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry and professor, by courtesy, of chemical engineering, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Newly elected international members, their affiliations at the time of election, and their country of citizenship are:

Dingwell, Donald; professor, director, and chair of mineralogy and petrology, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany (Canada and Germany)

Rix, Hans-Walter; director and scientific member, Department Galaxies and Cosmology, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (Germany)

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and—with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine—provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.