“National Academy of Sciences Announces New Members” (news item)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>May</a> 1 2012: NAS Members and Foreign Associates Elected</p>

<p>The National Academy of Sciences has announced the election of 84 new domestic members. Membership in the National Academy is considered one of the highest distinctions in academia. This year Stanford led the nation with six new members while Princeton was in second place with four. Eight universities had three while seven more had two each.</p>

<p>2012 National Academy of Sciences New Members</p>

<p>6---Stanford
4---Princeton
3---Berkeley, Columbia, JHU, MIT, Penn, U. of Pittsburgh, U. of Washington & UC San Diego
2---Harvard, Ohio State, U. of Arizona, U. of Colorado, UC Santa Barbara, Vanderbilt, Yale</p>

<p>The Ivies were also represented by Brown and Cornell, each of which had one new member.</p>

<p>Princeton’s showing is significant given its lack of a medical school (which always generates many new members) much smaller faculty and broad focus on both the humanities and sciences. Princeton’s newly-elected members were:</p>

<p>Prof. William Bialek, Chemical and Biological Engineering
Prof. Pablo Debenedetti, Chemistry
Prof. John Groves, Physics
Prof. Nai Phuan Ong, Physics</p>

<hr>

<p>Total # of National Academy of Science Faculty Members
(Leading Institutions as of 2012)</p>

<p>160---Harvard</p>

<p>130---Stanford
128---Berkeley
116---MIT</p>

<p>77----Princeton</p>

<p>69----Caltech
65----UC San Diego
61----Yale</p>

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<p>Thanks, as usual, for posting this info.</p>

<p>

For the record, Berkeley, MIT, and Caltech also lack medical schools.</p>

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<p>^^ . . . and what good company for Princeton!</p>

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<p>Stanford’s [url=&lt;a href=“http://facts.stanford.edu/faculty.html]official[/url”&gt;http://facts.stanford.edu/faculty.html]official[/url</a>] count for 2011-2012 is 150, which includes those who have joined/left Stanford recently. The new total would be 156, but that doesn’t account for those who may be joining/leaving (retiring or moving institutions).</p>

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<p>^ Yeahhhh, Berkeley’s website says 140… :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Phanta, I don’t think it really matters at this level.</p>

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<p>I’m curious if, from a practical standpoint, Princeton’s undergraduate focus benefits it’s students moreso in this regard than at the other schools. DS texted me the happy news that his JP advisor was inducted into NAS. It’s nice to know that NAS level professors are working with undergrads. Would this be the norm at the other leading schools?</p>

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<p>162—Harvard</p>

<p>142—Stanford (by including additional 6 members at SLAC)</p>

<p>131—Berkeley</p>

<p>119—MIT</p>

<p>81----Princeton</p>

<p>69 (?)----Caltech
68----UC San Diego
63----Yale </p>

<p>Observations:

  1. Stanford is gradually closing the gap with Harvard, and securing its #2 position by beating Berkeley.
  2. Princeton is closing the gap with MIT, and increasing the gap with Caltech.
  3. UCSD has been strong for years, even beating Yale.
  4. Is Caltech losing its momentum? A few years ago, it was ahead of Princeton.</p>
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<p>Ptongrad,</p>

<p>Do you have the data for NAS (or NAE, or IOM) memberships in the last 5 years? It would be interesting to look at the time series trend of each university.</p>

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<p>The current counts that I reported are taken from here:</p>

<p>[National</a> Academy of Sciences](<a href=“National Academy of Sciences”>National Academy of Sciences)</p>

<p>It’s quite possible that individual institutions may have different counts but to keep all things equal, I’m just referencing a single source. I suspect the differences are the result of timing issues. It might be that the NAS online directory is either more or less current than the numbers being reported by individual institutions.</p>

<p>I’m afraid that I don’t have any historical information.</p>

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<p>Just did a search on [National</a> Academy of Sciences](<a href=“National Academy of Sciences”>National Academy of Sciences).
The NAS members selected since 2000 for each school is found and the percentage of the NAS members selected since 2000 is calculated for each school. Apparently, the percentage is a good approxy for measuring a school’s momentum in science fields.</p>

<h1>In last 12 years, Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford have been gaining most in science fields; while MIT, Yale, and UCSD have been gaining least or possibly stayed unchanged.</h1>

<p>School | Total membership |Members selected since 2000 |% members selected since 2000
Harvard 161 66 41%
Stanford 142 57 40%
Berkeley 131 49 37%
MIT 119 37 31%
Princeton 81 34 42%
Caltech 69 24 35%
UCSD 68 19 28%
Yale 63 18 29%</p>

<p>The following is the school momentum rank in science:</p>

<p>School | % members selected since 2000
Princeton 42%
Harvard 41%
Stanford 40%
Berkeley 37%
Caltech 35%
MIT 31%
Yale 29%
UCSD 28%</p>

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<p>Datalook: You are a statistician. You should do a better job than this. Can you normalize the total number and momentum with the size of the institute? I am sure that you will find Rockefeller and Caltech will be the best after normalization. Harvard medical school has over 10,000 investigators and Stanford Med has 801, while MIT has 70, Rockefeller 73 and Caltech 60 in life science field. Do you think those comparable?</p>

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<p>I also don’t think that % of the existing membership as momentum is meaningful. It will give a small base university a huge boost. Those will be mostly state universities which do not have a lot of NAS members to begin with, such as Penn State or Pitt. It should be % of the existing faculty members as momentum.</p>

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<p>How many NAS members do the rest of the Ivies, Duke, and UChicago have?</p>

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<p>And how much interaction can undergrads expect to have with NAS members at P and other schools? As I noted in post #6 above, DS (a current junior) has a newly inducted member as his JP advisor. I’m curious if this close undergrad/top scientist interaction is more common at Princeton than at the more grad school focused schools.</p>

<p>At Stanford, Berkeley, and Caltech, for example, do undergrads get the same exposure to the top guns as at Princeton?</p>

<p>Or to put it another way, how much are these accolades relevant to undergrad vs. graduate programs?</p>

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<p>Official Berkeley presser says 4 were elected to NAS:
[Four</a> UC Berkeley scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences](<a href=“http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/05/01/four-uc-berkeley-scientists-elected-to-national-academy-of-sciences/]Four”>Four UC Berkeley scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences | Berkeley News)</p>