Frederick J. Sigworth, Ph.D., professor of cellular and molecular physiology, of biomedical engineering and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
He is among 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries selected for membership. The new members were announced May 3. Election to membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be afforded to a U.S. scientist or engineer.
Sigworth’s research unravels the workings of ion channel proteins, the “molecular machines” that switch on and off electrical currents that are carried by ions across biological membrane proteins. His lab at Yale is pursuing new approaches to obtain 3D structures of these proteins.
Also elected to the NAS was C. Megan Urry, Ph.D., the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy. She is president of the American Astronomical Society, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, a former member of the Hubble space telescope faculty, and former chair of the Yale Department of Physics (2007 to 2013).
Sigworth and Urry will be formally inducted as members at next year’s NAS annual meeting. Their membership brings the total number of active NAS members to 2,291.