Four faculty inducted into national academies

Four College faculty members were recently inducted into the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Elected to NAS, all from the department of biology, were:

• Kerry S. Bloom, chair and Thad L. Beyle Distinguished Professor. Bloom takes an integrative approach to understanding the structural basis of chromosome segregation. His research represents the forefront in the challenge to deduce structures of large macromolecular complexes in living cells in real time.

• Joseph J. Kieber, Kenan Distinguished Professor. Kieber studies how cells communicate in plants to control their growth and development and to respond to changes in their environment. Cell signaling touches nearly all aspects of biology, including many processes central to human health.
• Edward D. Salmon, James Larkin and Iona Mae Ballou Distinguished Professor emeritus. Salmon is a cell biologist and biophysicist who pioneered the development of video and digital imaging microscopy methods for analysis of molecular and structural dynamics in living cells.

In addition, Arturo Escobar, Kenan Distinguished Professor Emeritus of anthropology, was elected to the AAAS.

Escobar’s main research interests are political ecology, autonomous design theory and the anthropology of development and social movements. He works to understand why hunger exists worldwide.

Since Escobar retired in 2018, he has directed much of his time toward designing a new model of sustainability for the Cauca River Valley — a 500-kilometer valley between two mountain chains — in his native Colombia.