On Tuesday morning, three Columbia professors received phone calls telling them they had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences—yet none had the slightest idea as to why.
Earth and environmental sciences professor Paul Olsen, biology professor Carol Prives, and genetics and development professor Gary Struhl are three of 72 members appointed this year to the 150-year-old academy, which organizes committees of distinguished researchers to perform studies enhancing the country’s health, education, and welfare.
New academy members do not apply—rather, current members nominate candidates, whose curricula vitae and research publications are then assessed by a bureaucratic tangle of committees, all of which operate without the candidates’ involvement. The academy then surprises its successful nominees, adding annually to its sum of now more than 2,000 scientists.
And this year’s inductees were certainly surprised.
“Technically speaking, I don’t know what they’re recognizing me for,” Struhl said, speculating that it involves his specialty—animal development. Also an investigator at the non-profit, non-Columbia-affiliated Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Struhl explores the interpretation of information in cells tied to body part development.
“It’s like asking, ‘why do you have five fingers on your hand?’” Struhl explained. “We still don’t know a lot about how that information is interpreted.”
Olsen, who is both a climatologist and a vertebrate paleontologist, also expressed amazement .
“I got the call this [Tuesday] morning while boarding the bus,” he recalled. “They successively handed the phone to various members of the Academy to congratulate me.”
Olsen’s work focuses on the relationship between astronomical bodies and climate, as well as dinosaur evolution.
Other members of Olsen’s department have been awarded the title in previous years. “It’s a privilege to be working with these folks,” he said.
But the lack of information provided by the academy left the three—some of whom didn’t even know about the others’ election—somewhat clueless. “I’d be happy to do any type of research,” Prives said, adding that, like the others, she is unsure about what type of work she will do for the academy.
A cancer researcher, Prives examines the tumor suppressor protein P53, which is a bit of a double-edged sword—it can either protect healthy cells from becoming cancerous or, once cell mutation has begun, promote the spread of cancers.
“It feels very good not only for myself, but for my group of scientists, especially the young ones,” she said of her academy admittance.
As to how the honor will affect their work, the professors’ viewpoints vary.
“Having an honor of this sort makes one’s work more visible to the general public and will result in me being called upon,” Olsen said, but he pointed out that it won’t automatically win grants.
“Unfortunately, it’s a great honor to be elected, but you don’t get paid a penny,” Prives said, chuckling. “You actually have to pay dues!”
scott.levi@columbiaspectator.com