3 UC Berkeley Faculty Members Elected To NAS

BERKELEY, CA — Three UC Berkeley faculty members including two scientists have been elected to one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions.

Molecular biologists Barbara Baker and N. Louise Glass and labor economist David Card were among 120 members elected to join the National Academy of Sciences, the University reported on its official news site.

Baker and Glass were among a record 59 women elected to the 158-year-old institution whose membership recognizes distinguished achievements in original research.

The election of Baker, Glass and Card bring the total number of living Berkeley faculty who are NAS members to 145.

Baker is an adjunct professor of plant and microbial biology and a senior scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Her lab studies the genetic, molecular and biochemical processes that govern how plants and microbes interact, with a particular focus on how plants develop resistance to pathogen-induced diseases.

Glass is a leading researcher in the molecular genetics of the fungus Neurospora, including the genetics of mating, nonself recognition, and lignocellulose decomposition. Utilizing genetics, genomics and biochemical tools, her work focuses on fungal enzyme-secretion pathways and fungal regulatory networks to understand possible applications of fungi to bioenergy.

Card is a labor economist and professor of economics whose work has focused on inequality and the social and economic forces impacting low-wage workers.

He is best known for pioneering studies in the 1990s, still acutely relevant today, that challenge common assumptions about the effect of minimum wage increases on U.S. job growth and on the impact of immigration on native-born U.S. workers.

The NAS is a private, nonprofit institution 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.