The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has announced the election of 90 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. The announcement was made on October 19, 2026.
“I am thrilled to welcome these outstanding health and medicine leaders into the National Academy of Medicine,” said NAM President Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FASCO. “Their extraordinary talent and commitment to advancing evidence-based guidance and solutions for our country’s greatest health care challenges will strengthen our efforts to improve health for all.” Dr. Bertagnolli also served as ASCO President for the 2018-2019 term.
New members are elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. The newly elected members bring NAM’s total membership to more than 2,600, which includes more than 200 international members.
A diversity of talent among NAM’s membership is assured by its Articles of Organization, which stipulate that at least one-quarter of the membership is selected from fields outside the health professions—for example, from fields such as law, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities.
Newly Elected Members
Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, Robert Sonneborn Professor of Medicine and chair, Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and professor of urologic sciences, Irving Cancer Research Center, Columbia University, New York City. For her work in developmental oncobiology and for seminal discoveries elucidating molecular mechanisms driving cancer. Her innovative use of genetically engineered mouse models has transformed understanding of tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis, informing improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies across genitourinary cancers.
Steven Allen Abrams, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Dell Medical School, University of Texas-Austin. For his expertise in infant and micronutrient nutrition. His research has been central in developing global guidelines, including the Dietary Reference Intakes. He has developed and implemented protocols for nutrition for preterm infants, including evaluating human milk base fortification and fat sources for high-risk infants.
Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT, Director, Discovery Center for Musculoskeletal Recovery, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass. For her international leadership and pioneering work in regenerative rehabilitation research that couples the use of cellular bioengineering technologies with physical modalities and exercise to improve health, functioning, and longevity. Her research bridges applied biophysics, stem cell therapies, and basic physiology to enhance tissue repair.
Marisa S. Bartolomei, PhD, Perelman Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and director, Center of Women’s Health and Reproductive Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For identifying one of the first imprinted genes, a rare class of genes essential for development and human health. She defined imprinting regulation and provided insights into mechanisms of imprinted gene dysregulation and associated clinical disorders.
Amy J. Bastian, PT, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Physical Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore. For her fundamental work on cerebellar control of movement, sensorimotor learning, and novel rehabilitation approaches for people with neurological damage.
Vikhyat S. Bebarta, MD, George B. Boedecker, Jr. and Boedecker Foundation Endowed Professor; Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Founding Director, CU Anschutz COMBAT Medical Research Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora. For advancing emergency, trauma, and brain health care through clinical research across military, veteran, and civilian health systems. His work has changed emergency and acute care practice, shaped health systems and national health and defense policy, and built large-scale military-civilian research partnerships that rapidly translate research and innovation into care. He has mentored the next generation of health leaders.
Dwight Edward Bergles, PhD, Professor, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. For his pioneering discoveries of glial cell function in the nervous system. He defined the fate of glial progenitors and determined how they contribute to neurological disease. He also determined how glial cells in the developing inner ear generate spontaneous activity to induce maturation of sound processing circuits.
Lisa M. Bodnar, PhD, RD, Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. For her expertise on how maternal nutrition shapes pregnancy, birth, and long-term health of mothers and children. Her population research has transformed scientific knowledge of optimal maternal dietary patterns and healthy pregnancy weight-gain ranges, providing an essential evidence base for national and international public health guidance.
Carsten Gerhart Bönnemann, MD, habil., Chair, Department of Genomic and Translational Neuroscience, and First Horizon Foundation Endowed Chair in Translational Neuroscience, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis; and Adjunct Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia. For making numerous groundbreaking contributions to precision medicine, including gene discovery and deep phenotypic characterization; development of novel animal and cell-based models for translational studies; and the development and implementation of targeted genetic treatment for neurogenetic disorders of childhood including leading the first intrathecal AAV clinical trial.
Kathleen H. Burns, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Pathology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and professor of pathology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For pioneering work on transposable elements in human disease. Her discoveries have highlighted long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) activity as a source of heritable genetic variation and a hallmark of cancers. Her laboratory is establishing foundational concepts for LINE-1 contributions to cancer pathogenesis and ways to exploit this biology for diagnostic and therapeutic opportunity.
John Cawley, PhD, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Policy, and professor, Economics Department and Public Administration and International Affairs Department, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse. For pioneering the field of the economics of obesity. He is expert on topics such as the medical care costs of obesity, the labor market consequences of obesity, and the effectiveness of policies to prevent and reduce obesity (e.g., calorie counts on menus, taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages).
Lilia Cervantes, MD, MSCS, Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hospital and General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine-Anschutz, Aurora. For leading a change in Colorado’s Emergency Medicaid policy to expand access to dialysis and other essential care for undocumented immigrants, thus saving countless lives; for leading clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of community health worker interventions and for reforming chronic disease care; and for training physicians nationwide in community-partnered advocacy and research for policy change, advancing health for all.
Ashutosh Chilkoti, PhD, Alan L. Kaganov Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham. For developing the first artificial polypeptides to enter clinical trials for sustained delivery of protein drugs, inventing a method to purify protein drugs and viral vectors without chromatography, developing innovative point-of-care clinical diagnostics, and developing a next gen PEGylation technology that eliminates the immune response seen with PEGylated biologics.
Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, Chief Health Officer, Special Olympics International, Washington, D.C.; and George Adkins Professor, University of Washington, Seattle. For his expertise on child development and digital media and its effects on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive health. As the chief health officer for Special Olympics, he is working to improve assessment and health care for children and adults with intellectual disabilities worldwide.
Andreea A. Creanga, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Public Health and Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. For distinguished scientific leadership in advancing the measurement, understanding, and prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity at state, national, and global levels. Her pioneering work developing and evaluating large-scale, innovative, and person-centered hospital- and community-based interventions has transformed approaches to improving maternal health and well-being in the United States and globally.
Frédéric J. de Sauvage, PhD, Vice President, Research Oncology, Genetech, San Francisco. For essential contributions to molecular oncology, including elucidating the Hedgehog and Wnt pathways in cancer, which led to the medicine vismodegib (Erivedge); and persistent leadership in oncology drug development, leading to multiple FDA-approved therapies including the PI3Kalpha inhibitor inavolisib (Itovebi) and the CD20-CD3 bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab (Lunsumio).
Marcela G. del Carmen, MD, MPH, Professor of Obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology, Harvard Medical School; president, Massachusetts General Hospital; and president, Massachusetts General Physician Organization, Boston. For her work in transforming the treatment of ovarian cancer and establishing new approaches to reduce cancer-related morbidity/mortality in gynecologic cancers. As president of a major academic center, she leads a >30,000 member institution, championing the academic mission and delivering outstanding care to the community.
Francesco J. DeMayo, PhD, Chief and Senior Investigator, Reproductive and Developmental Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. For transforming our understanding of uterine function and regulation in health and disease. He revolutionized uterine biology by pioneering genetically engineered models that enable precise in vivo manipulation of uterine tissues, providing unprecedented insights into mechanisms underlying pregnancy and reproductive disorders, with a broad impact on women’s health.
Noémie Elhadad, PhD, Chair and Associate Professor, Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York City. For contributing foundational advances to the field of AI for health care, translating them into the clinic through decision support tools like patient record summarization, and for pioneering new approaches in patient-centered AI together with building large, global-scale patient-generated datasets to advance the knowledge and management of endometriosis and menstruation.
Susan L. Ettner, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine; Distinguished Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health; and Dean Emerita, Division of Graduate Education, University of California, Los Angeles. For her foundational research on the link between socioeconomic status and health and for pioneering research in the field of behavioral health economics. She applied innovative econometric techniques to quantify the causal link between income and multiple health measures. Her research highlights behavioral health policy’s benefits in easing patient financial burden.
Rebecca S. Etz, PhD, Professor, Family Medicine and Population Health, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. For revolutionizing primary care measurement and crisis response, creating the first Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services-endorsed patient-reported primary care measure, and establishing the only national COVID-19 primary care tracking system, influencing congressional action and state policies. Her groundbreaking CMS-funded research redefines how integrated, whole-person health care can be achieved, measured, and valued.
Terence R. Flotte, MD, Dean, Provost, Executive Deputy Chancellor, and Elisabeth Chair for the Dean of Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics and Genetic and Cellular Medicine, T.H. Chan School of Medicine, University of Massachusetts, Worcester. For leading the first-in-human trials of AAV vectors for cystic fibrosis, alpha-1 antitrypsin, and Tay-Sachs disease, while leading vector developments and improvements in immunologic safety. At UMass Medical School, he extended his collaborative, imaginative leadership strategies to build large, diverse, and successful research programs in molecular therapies.
William H. Frist, MD, Founder, Frist Cressey Ventures, Nashville; and former U.S. Senate majority leader (R-TN). For leadership on U.S. health reform, including Medicare modernization and children’s health coverage, and on global public health initiatives including the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, which has saved tens of millions of lives globally, and for developing and advancing impact of major NAM initiatives including climate change and global health.
Ali Gharavi, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chair, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York City. For his research that clarified the genetics of numerous kidney disorders and enabled successful treatments for IgA nephropathy. By proving the value of genetic testing in otherwise idiopathic renal failure, he changed the paradigm of kidney care.
Jeremy A. Greene, MD, PhD, William H. Welch Professor of Medicine and History of Medicine, Department of History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. For making history vital to improving biomedicine, clinical practice, and health policy; and national leadership in elevating the role of humanities and social sciences in medical education. His groundbreaking and rigorous historical studies of medical technologies, from pharmaceuticals to digital health to disposable devices, have improved access to care and drug regulation.
Anna Greka, MD, PhD, Core Institute Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Professor, Department of Medicine, Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For elucidating the molecular basis of kidney and genetic diseases, particularly those that disrupt fundamental mechanisms of protein trafficking and renal barrier function, and for translating these discoveries into targeted therapies.
Geoffrey C. Gurtner, MD, FACS, Professor and Chair of Surgery, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson. For the scientific insights from his lab that have led to FDA-cleared medical devices that have helped thousands of patients and new drugs in clinical trials that hold the promise of preventing diabetic amputations and scar formation following burns and trauma.
Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, MS, Samuel S.C. Yen Endowed Chair, Professor and Department Chair, Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla. For global leadership in maternal-fetal medicine, pioneering landmark clinical trials that expanded the use of antenatal corticosteroids to improve respiratory outcomes for infants born late preterm, and changing obstetric practice internationally. Follow-up of the offspring provided novel insights on hypoglycemia, neurodevelopment, and growth in children born late preterm.
Diane Medved Harper, MD, MPH, MS, Professor of Family Medicine, Obstetrics, and Gynecology, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For her work in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer prevention, leading the definitive groundbreaking clinical trials on the efficacy of HPV vaccines now utilized worldwide. Her research increased screening rates through self-sampling methodologies that inform evidence-based national and international guidelines. She has served on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.
Paul Alan Harris, PhD, MS, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatics, and Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt Health, Nashville. For designing, engineering, and disseminating leading technologies that support diverse biomedical research at scale, including REDCap, ResearchMatch, and the All of Us Research Program. REDCap has been used by >4.5 million users in >8,000 institutions in >160 countries, ResearchMatch has supported >1,400 studies, and All of Us has >22,000 projects.
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Director, Dartmouth Cancer Center; Associate Dean of Cancer Programs; Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Medicine; and Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Distinguished Chair in Cancer, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. For pioneering work in the development of targeted and immune-based therapies for non-small cell lung cancer, and revolutionizing the treatment of lung cancer through master protocols and pragmatic clinical trial design based on patient biomarkers and personalized medicine. His work has advanced the standard of care, improved patient outcomes, and enhanced clinical trial diversity.
Lauren S. Hughes, MD, MPH, MSc, MHCDS, FAAFP, Professor, Department of Family Medicine, and state policy director, Eugene S. Farley, Jr. Health Policy Center, University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora. For reshaping federal and state approaches to strengthening primary care and leading a body of influential reports on payment and valuation to guide U.S. policy. She co-chaired the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Primary Care, chaired the American Board of Family Medicine, served on the Colorado Primary Care Payment Reform Collaborative, and has researched and written extensively about primary care payment, workforce, integrated behavioral health, and how the discipline navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daniel B. Jernigan, MD, MPH, Contributing Scholar, Center for Health Security and Center for Outbreak Response Innovation, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Atlanta. For transforming CDC’s data modernization efforts and leading national public health responses, including the bioterrorism-related anthrax attack, the emergence of West Nile virus, the SARS epidemic, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, several Ebola outbreaks, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jacqueline S. Jeruss, MD, PhD, Alfred E. Chang M.D. Research Professor of Surgical Oncology; Professor of Surgery, Biomedical Engineering; Associate Dean for Regulatory Affairs; and Associate Vice President for Research Integrity and Compliance, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For seminal contributions to cancer research, staging, and treatment, including fertility preservation for young patients with cancer, elucidation of critical TGF-beta signaling aberrations, implementation of CDK inhibitor anticancer therapy, and application of biomaterials to identify early metastatic events, together with leadership in surgical education, medical ethics, and research integrity.
David S. Jones, MD, PhD, A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine; Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts For pathbreaking scholarship in the history of medicine, the social determinants of disease, health disparities in diverse populations, and the utilization of health technologies. For original scholarship in the re-evaluation of the use of race correction in clinical algorithms. He is a leading advocate for medical education reform in his fields.
Susan M. Kaech, PhD, Executive Vice Ppresident and Director of Immunology Accelerator, Allen Institute, Seattle. For establishing the modern paradigms that define how memory T cells develop and function and for her groundbreaking research intersecting immunology with genomics, metabolism, and neurobiology. These seminal contributions have opened new frontiers of research in infectious diseases and cancer influencing the future of immunotherapeutics and T cell engineering.
Ruth Aviva Karron, MD, Professor, Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health; and joint appointment, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. For her roles in improving maternal, infant, and child health through immunization. Her groundbreaking research on RSV vaccines, guidance on inclusion of pregnant women in vaccine trials, and leadership on national and international vaccine development and policy committees has advanced the development, licensure, and global implementation of vaccines.
Nancy L. Keating, MD, MPH, Professor of Healthcare Policy and Medicine, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston. For making seminal contributions to identifying and evaluating strategies for promoting high-quality, high-value cancer care. She has assessed alternative payment models, conducted comparative effectiveness studies of common cancer treatments elucidating harms and benefits in real-world settings, and evaluated cancer therapies to promote guideline-recommended use, affordability, and adherence.
Max B. Kelz, MD, PhD, Lee Fleisher Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For discovering that the induction of and emergence from general anesthesia have distinct neural mechanisms. He also identified the phenomenon and mechanism of sex differences in anesthetic sensitivity. These discoveries have improved clinical care and led to innovative approaches to enhance recovery for surgical patients.
Paul J. Kenny, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, and director, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. For transformative and highly impactful work that has revealed how brain circuits and molecular pathways govern addiction, mental illness, and obesity. His discoveries are fundamentally advancing efforts to prevent and treat substance use disorders, to drive public knowledge, and to drive first-in-class therapeutic strategies.
Peter H. Kilmarx, MD, Medical Epidemiologist, Chiang Rai, Thailand. For sustained leadership in global health research and public health response; pioneering studies in maternal-child health and infectious diseases; strengthening research capacity in lower-income countries; and fostering mutually beneficial, collaborative international partnerships that have expanded scientific knowledge, improved health outcomes, and trained a new generation of global health researchers.
Albert Icksang Ko, MD, Raj and Indra Nooyi Professor of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven; and Collaborating Researcher, Gonçalo Moniz Institute, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazilian Ministry of Health. For his seminal contributions and leadership in global health, which have delineated the role of urbanization and social inequity in infectious disease emergence, generated effective responses to epidemics worldwide and the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., and produced global health leaders across the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
Donald Barry Kohn, MD, MS, Distinguished Professor, Departments of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. For developing techniques to treat genetic blood diseases by gene correcting and transplanting a patient’s own hematopoietic stem cells. He applied these gene therapy methods to clinical trials for severe combined immunodeficiency, pediatric HIV/AIDS, Gaucher disease, sickle cell disease, chronic granulomatous disease, and LAD-1.
Albert C. Koong, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Sewell Family Distinguished University Chair, and Professor of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. For transforming routine clinical care for pancreatic and liver malignancies by demonstrating the safe and effective application of stereotactic body radiotherapy through practice-changing trials. His laboratory was first to identify the IRE1-XBP1 pathway as a critical cancer therapeutic target regulated by tumor hypoxia.
Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, Professor of Health Care Policy and Medicine, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School; and Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. For his seminal research and key insights about primary care, quality of care, delivery system structure, and financial incentives that have led to reforms to primary care payment, Medicare Advantage, and quality measurement programs. These reforms have improved care broadly and for underserved and disadvantaged populations.
Meghan Brooks Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP., E.M. Papper Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City. For her expertise on the application of implementation science to maternal health research. Her NIH-funded research combines the science of organizational behavior change with human factors engineering to drive equity improvements in maternal care and outcomes in acute and community settings across the United States.
Maciej S. Lesniak, MD, MHCM, FAANS, Michael J. Marchese Professor and Chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. For pioneering the method of loading neural stem cells with an engineered tumor specific virus to infect and kill glioblastoma cells. His breakthroughs have launched novel and first-in-human clinical trials and paved the way for elucidating the mechanisms of antiviral and antitumoral immunity in glioblastoma.
Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, Director, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda. For his leadership in oncology and programmed cell death. He has played a fundamental role in deciphering the regulation of apoptosis by the BCL-2 family of proteins and translating these discoveries into the approval of venetoclax in CLL and AML and clinical development of BCL-2 family inhibitors.
Ross L. Levine, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City. For his work in defining the genetic basis of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). He described genetic subtypes of myeloid leukemias, elucidated the JAK-STAT pathway, and discovered somatic mutations in clonal, pre-leukemic hematopoiesis. His laboratory discoveries have translated to clinical trials and mechanism-based effective treatments for MPN and leukemias.
Jennifer Lewis, ScD, Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University; and core faculty member, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Cambridge, Mass. For her groundbreaking work in 3D bioprinting of soft and living materials. She developed advanced techniques for creating vascularized organoids and human tissues for use in drug discovery, disease modeling, and therapeutic repair.
Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, Alexander Graham Bell Professor of Medicine; Director, Framingham Center for Population and Prevention Science; Principal Investigator, Framingham Heart Study; and Section Chief, Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston. For his work that revolutionized cardiovascular disease risk assessment, prevention, and promoted healthy longevity. A past president of the American Heart Association and renowned physician-scientist, his leadership in research, guidelines, health equity, and policy, and now of the legendary Framingham Heart Study, is transforming clinical practice and public health.
Christopher A. Longhurst, MD, MS, FACMI, Chief Executive Officer, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle. For contributions to the computer and information sciences underlying clinical decision support, health-system data architecture, and evaluation and governance of AI-enabled tools. His work integrates algorithmic methods, workflow-embedded analytics, and measurement frameworks supporting use of computational systems in clinical environments and informing national policy on patient safety and AI oversight.
Alexander Marson, MD, PhD, Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes; professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco; and Director, Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, San Francisco. For revolutionizing genome engineering in human lymphocytes, and pioneering CRISPR-based technologies for targeted non-viral genome editing, genome-wide screens, and therapeutic reprogramming. His discoveries have transformed the landscape of functional genomics and immunotherapy, uncovering key gene variants and regulatory networks to enable next-generation treatments for cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases.
Nicola J. Mason, BVetMed, PhD, DACVIM (internal medicine), FRCVS, Paul A. James and Charles A. Gilmore Endowed Chair Professorship and Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia. For her comparative research within the One Health initiative that has enabled maximum leverage of pet dogs with spontaneous diseases to inform human translation. Her clinical and translational work in client-owned canine patients with vaccines, cellular and gene therapies, and monoclonal antibodies has led to therapeutic advances in both veterinary and human medicine.
Amy L. McGuire, JD, PhD, Leon Jaworski Professor of Biomedical Ethics, and director, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. For making seminal contributions on ethical and policy issues related to emerging technologies and innovative therapeutics, especially in genomics, neuropsychology, and novel neurological devices. She is a national leader in bioethics.
Marie Lynn Miranda, PhD, Chancellor and Professor of Pediatrics and Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago. For her leadership in higher education and for research that has translated geospatial science into meaningful improvements in maternal and child health. She has brought broad access and excellence at scale across UIC’s educational, research, and clinical enterprises.
Susan Coller Monarez, PhD, Founder and CEO, Heartland Global Strategies, Potomac, Md. For nationally trusted leadership advancing biomedical innovation, public health preparedness, and science-driven governance. She has led multibillion-dollar health technology portfolios, strengthened U.S. and global health security, and ensured that emerging science from AI to medical countermeasures translates into real-world health impact with integrity and accountability.
Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, MPH, ML, MRA, Barry J. Gertz Professor for Translational Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For the discovery of multiple novel genes and mechanisms involved in cardiovascular diseases, followed by pioneering work in creating somatic gene-editing therapies, contributing to the first demonstration of therapeutic base editing in human patients and the development of the first bespoke gene-editing therapy administered to an individual patient.
Maiken Nedergaard, MD, PhD, professor, and co-director, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, N.Y. For transforming neuroscience and medicine by discovering the glymphatic system, revealing sleep-dependent brain waste clearance. Her work redefined the biological purpose of sleep and established impaired brain clearance as a unifying mechanism in neurodegeneration, stroke, trauma, and chronic neurological disease, opening new therapeutic pathways.
Emily Oken, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair, Department of Population Medicine, and Professor, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston. For seminal research on pregnancy health and on chronic disease risk in women and children that has had far-reaching impact on federal and international guidelines. Her discoveries on nutritional and environmental influences on women’s health spanning the reproductive years and children’s long-term health have shaped both science and policy.
Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, director and senior investigator, Gladstone Infectious Disease Institute; and Nick and Sue Hellmann Distinguished Professor, University of California, San Francisco. For seminal contributions to curing HIV and curbing SARS-CoV-2 by mapping the epigenetics of latent HIV and pioneering CRISPR-based and mobile phone diagnostics, and translating fundamental virology into innovative prevention and treatment strategies. For globally recognized leadership in pandemic preparedness and mentorship of the next generation of scientists.
Vassilios Papadopoulos, DPharm, PhD, Dean and Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; and professor of medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. For his groundbreaking work that helped define mechanisms controlling steroid hormone biosynthesis in classical and non-classical tissues, and pioneering work on pharmacology of steroidogenesis and neurosteroidogenesis that led to development of new drugs for endocrine, neurological, and psychiatric diseases. And, for leadership that contributed to success of multiple universities.
Sergiu P. Pasca, MD, Kenneth T. Norris Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Uytengsu Family Director, Stanford Brain Organogenesis Center; and senior fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. For seminal contributions to the development and study of brain organoids and assembloids that have provided a new understanding of human brain development and plasticity as well as brain dysfunction in disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.
Dana Pe’er, PhD, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor and Chair, Computational and Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City. For pioneering foundational computational frameworks that redefined how cellular states, trajectories, and plasticity are inferred from single-cell and spatial data. Applying these ideas to cancer, she showed that malignancy arises when tumors hijack normal developmental and regenerative programs, amplifying plasticity to drive initiation, progression, and metastasis.
Fred Ramsdell, PhD, Founder and Adviser, Sonoma Biotherapeutics; and adviser, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Bainbridge Island, Wash. For his Nobel-winning discovery that Foxp3 mutations cause phenotypically orthologous heritable murine (Scurfy) and human (IPEX) autoimmunity syndromes and the discovery that this single transcription factor generates a distinct immune-regulatory T cell subset, termed regulatory T cell (Treg). Such Treg cells represent a major therapeutic opportunity in autoimmune disease as well as a new target for cancer immunotherapy.
Daniel S. Reich, MD, PhD, Senior Investigator; Chief, Neuroimmunology Branch; and chief, Translational Neuroradiology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. For leading groundbreaking studies to understand the fundamental biology of neurodegeneration, investigating chronic neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis with multiomics approaches linked to advanced radiological tools to reveal new therapeutic targets, and defining novel approaches to testing next-generation treatments for unmet needs in proof-of-concept clinical trials in neurodegeneration.
Bing Ren, PhD, Professor of Genetics and Development, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Associate Director, Vagelos Institute for Basic Biomedical Science, Columbia University; and Scientific Director and CEO, New York Genome Center, New York City. For developing transformative methods to map transcriptional regulatory elements and annotating millions of enhancers and promoters across hundreds of human cell types. He also helped establish that interphase chromosomes are organized into topologically associating domains, which constrain enhancer-promoter interactions and shape gene regulation.
Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. For pioneering chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR-NK) cell therapies, groundbreaking immunotherapies that provide uniquely safe, cost-effective, allogeneic, and off-the-shelf approaches to treat cancer. Her discoveries and practice-changing clinical trials established the field of CAR-NK cell therapies and expanded its frontiers through the first clinical trials of T cell receptor-NK cells and the development of genetically edited NK cells.
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhD, President and CEO-elect, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis. For his seminal contributions to understanding how dysfunctional chromatin regulation causes malignancy, which have led to investigational and FDA-approved therapies for children and adults with cancer, and for leading the nation’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center solely dedicated to pediatrics in making paradigm-shifting discoveries at the national and international levels.
Hudson Santos, RN, PhD, Dean and Professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla. For visionary scientific leadership advancing the discoveries of developmental origins of disease, specifically demonstrating how early-life adversity becomes biologically embedded through the placenta-brain axis; and for leveraging breakthroughs to drive policy and practice reforms to reduce maternal-child morbidity and mortality.
Anne Schaefer, MD, Director, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing; and professor, Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. For pioneering work in molecular neurobiology, whose highly original discoveries revealed microglia as regulators of neuronal activity and guardians of neuronal identity. Her work uncovered epigenetic mechanisms of neuronal longevity, neuroprotective microglial states, and novel immunotherapy-based targets for Alzheimer’s disease, profoundly shaping modern neuroimmunology and brain health research.
Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, President and CEO; Zanvyl Krieger Faculty Endowed Chair, Kennedy Krieger Institute; and Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. For his seminal work that built a foundation for understanding typical and atypical development of cognition, language, and reading using cognitive neuroscientific approaches, establishing him as a thought leader in translational developmental neuroscience.
Courtney A. Schreiber, MD, MPH, Stuart and Emily B.H. Mudd Professor in Human Behavior and Reproduction, Obstetrics, and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For research that has transformed reproductive health by improving miscarriage care through mifepristone pretreatment, eliminating unnecessary Rh testing, and redesigning early pregnancy services via the PEACE model. Her exemplary leadership in complex family planning established board certification and a national subspecialist workforce, advancing evidence-based care and health equity worldwide.
Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, Secretary, Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore. For her work that has transformed Medicare and strengthened public health nationally through advancing payment reform and prescription drug affordability, expanding rural and women’s health services, and protecting access to vaccines.
Ali Shilatifard, PhD, Chairman and Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. For pioneering molecular discoveries that revealed how chromosomal translocations drive childhood leukemia by disrupting transcriptional elongation and epigenetic regulation. His breakthrough mechanistic insights reshaped cancer biology and directly inspired epigenetics-based therapies now advancing in clinical trials, cementing his role as a transformative leader in the field.
Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Division of Hematology/Oncology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; and Director, Clinical/Translational Research, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles. For basic and clinical research that led to the development of the molecularly targeted breast cancer drugs trastuzumab (Herceptin) and palbociclib (Ibrance), both of which have changed how we treat patients with breast cancer and have led to saving thousands of lives.
Brian D. Smedley, PhD, MA, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. For his leadership in establishing the intellectual foundation for research and policies on health disparities and health equity. His work was unquestionably among the most influential in establishing the urgency to address disparate burden of illness and death, and in legitimizing health equity as a field of science.
Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Jerrold F. Rosenbaum Endowed Chair in Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. For his leadership in the discovery of shared and distinct genomic influences across psychiatric disorders, illuminating how genetic variation relates to the structure of psychopathology. He is a leader in developing precision psychiatry, including the use of big data and AI to inform clinical decision-making for suicide prevention.
Vikaas Singh Sohal, MD, PhD, Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco. For transforming our understanding of how rhythmic patterns of brain activity track and influence mood and anxiety in real time and can be targeted to improve cognition in conditions such as schizophrenia. He has also discovered fundamentally new types of connections between brain regions that transmit these patterns of activity.
Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, Chair, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Associate Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital; David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; and institute member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Boston. For developing highly innovative methods for genetic and chemical genomic screens of cell phenotypes. She applied these successfully to understand pediatric cancer biology and discover drugs to treat specific cancers. This work prompted multiple drug discovery efforts in academia and industry and provides insight into oncogenic mechanisms underlying cancer.
Susan A. Stern, MD, Professor and Founding Emeritus Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. For her work investigating the physiology and resuscitation of uncontrolled hemorrhage during the critical early period following injury. She has investigated novel resuscitation strategies, interventions, and technologies across a range of injury patterns, including concomitant brain injury and post-injury coagulopathy. Collectively, this work has advanced the science of trauma resuscitation and contributed to improved outcomes for injured civilians and soldiers.
Elizabeth M. Swisher, MD, Professor and Deputy Director, Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle. For defining the genetic landscape of hereditary ovarian cancer and changing how we assess risk and prevent these cancers. She led clinical development of PARP inhibitors, discovering mechanisms of sensitivity and resistance that have fundamentally changed the standard of care and extended survival for countless women with ovarian cancer.
Swee Lay Thein, MB, BS, DSc, FMedSci, FRS, Senior Investigator and distinguished clinical investigator, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. For the fundamental discovery of BCL11A as a critical regulator of fetal hemoglobin that has revolutionized therapies for sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia. Her groundbreaking work has directly enabled the development of curative genome-editing therapies for these life-threatening, globally prevalent diseases.
Matthew V. Tirrell, PhD, D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago. For pioneering the design and synthesis of self-assembling polymers to deliver peptide, protein, and nucleotide drugs in cardiovascular disease, cancer, infection, and vaccination. He developed the fundamentals of self-assembly and skillfully applied them to solve key problems in medicine through delivery targeted at the subcellular, cellular, and tissue levels.
Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, PhD, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. For his work on translational communication science and health inequities that have profoundly influenced scholarship and practice of public health, and that has been widely used by local, national, and international bodies.
Leslie R. Walker, MD, Professor and Chair, Ford/Morgan Endowed Chair of Pediatrics, and associate dean, University of Washington School of Medicine; and chief academic officer/senior vice president, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle. For leadership in child and adolescent health, including substance abuse prevention advocacy, and in addressing maternal health with doula capacity building. Nationally and locally, she is leading system change in academic pediatrics and leading community-centered upstream systems across sectors to spark programs for children to flourish.
Matthew K. Wynia, MD, MPH, Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health; and director, Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado, Aurora. For his accomplishments in bioethics, which have influenced policy, practice, and education on topics marked by great ethical complexity, including public health and disaster ethics (e.g., developing ethical strategies for allocating scarce resources during health emergencies) and professionalism (e.g., confronting the medical profession’s failures regarding racism).
Younan Xia, PhD, MS, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. For pioneering, seminal, and sustained research contributions, as well as leadership, in the invention and rational development of myriad nanomaterials for biomedical applications, as exemplified by the successful translation of electrospun nanofibers, gold nanocages, and silver nanowires for the clinical advancement of nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, and wearable electronics.
Michael B. Yaffe, MD, PhD, David H. Koch Professor of Science, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For the discovery of phospho Ser/Thr-binding domains in proteins and how they regulate signaling pathways controlling the cell cycle or in response to stress. This work fueled the emergence of systems biology and bioinformatic approaches to map motifs across the kinome and characterize biochemical principles that determine kinase-substrate selectivity.
Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD, Glenn A. Fry Professor in Optometry and Physiological Optics, The Ohio State University College of Optometry, Columbus. For pioneering and exemplary contributions in vision science, including describing the natural history of the devastating ocular disease keratoconus, identifying the major risk factors for myopia onset in children, defining the protective nature of outdoor time on the development of myopia in children, and for exceptional mentorship and leadership.
Newly Elected International Members
Meghan B. Azad, PhD, MS, professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair of Pediatrics and Child Health, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. For advancing research at the intersection of maternal-child health, breastfeeding, human milk, immunology, and the microbiome. As director of the International Milk Composition Consortium, her research and outreach foster global, multidisciplinary collaborations in human milk science and bridge research and policy to improve the intergenerational health of mothers and children worldwide.
Felix Lankester, PhD, DVM, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health, Global Health Tanzania and Washington State University Global Health-Tanzania, Arusha, Tanzania. For leading the clinical trials that established the basis for rabies elimination across Africa. His work across traditional disciplinary boundaries in health, economics, and social sciences led to the development and implementation of successful disease elimination strategies.
Jun Ma, MD, Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China. For establishing the current standard of care for nasopharyngeal carcinoma by pioneering efficacy-enhancing immuno-chemo-radiotherapy regimens and advancing low-toxicity radiotherapy strategies. His work helped improve five-year survival rates for nasopharyngeal carcinoma in China from approximately 44% to 56% while significantly enhancing patients’ quality of life.
Luigi Naldini, MD, PhD, Director, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy; and professor of tissue biology and gene and cell therapy, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University Medical School, Milan, Italy. For pioneering bench-to-bedside development of lentiviral vectors for gene transfer. These are providing safe and effective therapies for thousands of patients affected by severe or lethal inherited diseases or cancers, some of which are now registered drugs in the European Union and U.S.
Klaus-Armin Nave, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Goettingen; and Department of Neuropathology, Charité, University Medical School, Berlin, Germany. For making fundamental discoveries on the interaction of neurons and glia in the nervous system that changed our view on glial cells in health and disease.
Marcus Eng Hock Ong, MBBS, MPH, Senior Consultant, Distinguished Senior Clinician, Provost’s Chair, and Director, Department of Emergency Medicine and Health Services Research and Population Health, Singapore General Hospital and Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, Singapore. For his work on improving health care through evidence-based practices in prehospital and emergency care. His work has significantly enhanced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region, leveraging strengths in data science, medical innovation, and artificial intelligence.
Vardit Ravitsky, PhD, President and CEO, The Hastings Center for Bioethics, Garrison, N.Y. For her work in cutting-edge ethical and policy issues in reproductive health, rights and technologies, gene editing, mitochondrial replacement techniques, and the health-related use of AI.
Shimon Sakaguchi, MD, PhD, Distinguished Honorary Professor, WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center, The University of Osaka, Osaka, Japan. For his groundbreaking discovery of regulatory T cells that confer dominant suppression of potentially inflammatory immune responses, his elucidation of the properties of these cells, including their dependence on Foxp3 expression, and his development of novel therapeutic strategies harnessing Treg cells to treat autoimmune diseases or targeting them in cancer.
Carlos Simón, MD, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain. For pioneering basic and translational research transforming maternal, infant, and reproductive medicine by linking decidualization-resistance, implantation disorders, and circulating cell-free RNA for early prediction of severe, preterm preeclampsia. His scientific leadership, entrepreneurial expertise, and vision are advancing health care and improving maternal and infant health worldwide.
Cesar Gomes Victora, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Post-Graduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil. For pioneering research on exclusive breastfeeding and WHO growth standards that have been adopted by 140 countries. His cohort studies proved the “first 1,000 days” are critical for adult health, while his work on socioeconomic inequalities reshaped global monitoring and international health equity policies.
To learn more, visit NAM.edu.
