Scholars, trustees, friends of UConn, and more gathered this week at the University of Connecticut School of Law to honor the members of the University community who have been honored with election to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The event at the Starr Library on Aug. 27 included presentations from the scholars as well as remarks from senior administrators.
The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln as a private, nongovernmental institution intended to provide insight and guidance to the United States on scientific matters. The National Academy of Engineering, created in 1964, and the National Academy of Medicine, created in 1970, were formed under the same congressional charter. Collectively, they are commonly known as the National Academies.
“In the life of a scholar, few honors can compare with election to a National Academy. It is a recognition by peers and the Academy itself of outstanding achievements in research and scholarship,” President Radenka Maric said at the celebration. “Members of the National Academies stand at the absolute pinnacle of their fields, and serve as a vital advisory group for our nation on matters of science, technology, engineering, and medicine.”
The most recent UConn faculty member to receive this honor is Professor of Physics Norah Berrah, whose election was announced in May. She joins Ji-Cheng ‘JC’ Zhao, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Engineering; Kathy Segerson, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics; Dr. Cato Laurencin, Chief Executive Officer of The Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering at UConn Health; Laurinda Jaffe, department chair and professor of cell biology at UConn Health; and Dr. Se-Jin Lee, Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Two other faculty members – Mary Jane Osborn, professor of microbiology who died in 2019; and Henry N. Andrews, professor of botany who died in 2002 – were also members of the NAS.
Members are elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” Current academy members must nominate and vote for new members to join the academy, with no more than 120 members being elected each year.
