Among the 72 American scientists and engineers elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) this spring was SUNY Fredonia chemistry and biology graduate, Michael Marletta, a Rochester native who is now on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley.
|
|
The national academy brings together the nation’s top experts who serve pro bono to address critical national issues and give advice to the federal government and the public. Election to the group is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve. Most of the institution's science policy and technical work is conducted by its operating arm, the National Research Council, created for this purpose.
“To say that I am very pleased and honored seems like such an understatement,” Dr. Marletta said. He is chairperson of the chemistry department and Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Berkeley. “I am also grateful beyond words to the students I have worked with and learned from over the years. Their excitement, dedication and ideas are responsible for the recognition given by the NAS election.”
The Academy was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and now has a membership of roughly 2,000 Americans and 350 foreign associates. Three-hundred and fifty Academy members have won the Nobel Prize.
A native of Rochester, Dr. Marletta graduated from SUNY Fredonia in 1973 and has since then established a scholarship at Fredonia and helped design the new biochemistry major. He was the commencement speaker on campus in 1996.
Dr. Marletta is also a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. Dr. Marletta previously taught at the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California-San Francisco, where he earned his Ph. D in 1977. He is a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a past recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Dr. Marletta lives in Berkeley with his wife, Margaret, and son, Matthew.
