Anna Marie Pyle, PhD, Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and professor of chemistry, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She is one of 120 new members elected to the academy, which was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a U.S. scientist or engineer.
Pyle is a biochemist and structural biologist whose lab has made important discoveries related to RNA structure and RNA recognition by protein enzymes. Her work has led to an array of cancer-fighting molecules, anti-fungal compounds, and a map of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. She joined the Yale faculty in 2002.
She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a three-time recipient of awards from the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1997. She is a past president of the RNA Society and recipient of the RNA Society Lifetime Service Award.
Two other members of the newly elected group who are affiliated with Yale are Michel Devoret, PhD, F.W. Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics and Physics; and Samuel Mosely, PhD, research affiliate at the Wright Laboratory.