Whitehead Member David Bartel elected to National Academy of Sciences

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —The National Academy of Sciences has announced that Whitehead Institute’s David Bartel is among 72 new Academy members elected today in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Bartel’s election was held during the 148th annual meeting of the Academy. Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to just over 2,100.

A recognized leader in the study of microRNAs and their effects on gene expression, Bartel completed his PhD at Harvard University and joined Whitehead Institute in 1994 as a Whitehead Fellow. In 1996 he was appointed an Associate Member of Whitehead and assistant professor of biology at MIT. Bartel is now a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a Whitehead Member, and a professor of biology at MIT.

With his election, Bartel becomes the eighth Whitehead Member to hold membership in the National Academy of Sciences. The others are Gerald Fink, Rudolf Jaenisch, Susan Lindquist, Harvey Lodish, Terry Orr-Weaver, David Page, and Robert Weinberg.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, which calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

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David Bartel is a Member at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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