Four Duke faculty members have been recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for their outstanding research contributions. The 120 new members and 24 new international members elected included these distinguished academics from Duke.
Among the NAS members from Duke is John Aldrich, who holds the Pfizer Inc./Edmund T. Pratt Jr. University Distinguished Professor title in the Department of Political Science. He is known for his research on American politics and elections.
David Beratan, a professor of chemistry, biochemistry, and physics at Duke, was also elected to the NAS. His focus is on developing theoretical approaches to understand the function of complex molecular and macromolecular systems.
Richard Mooney, a professor of neurobiology and cell biology at Duke, was recognized for his work studying songbirds to uncover how experience influences learning, behavior, and perception at the neural level.
Tai-ping Sun, a professor of biology at Duke, was honored for her studies using the model plant Arabidopsis to investigate plant growth and development regulation. She joins Jenny Tung as another Duke faculty member elected to the NAS this year. Tung is an evolutionary anthropologist affiliated with both Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Duke University’s department of evolutionary anthropology and biology. She leads a research project studying social determinants of health using baboons in Kenya and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019.
