PHILADELPHIA —Three scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale Goldman, MD, PhD, Mitchell A. Lazar, MD, PhD, and Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Selected for "their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research," these scientists are part of the 2017 Academy class of 84 members and 21 foreign associates.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.
Yale E. Goldman, MD, PhD, is a professor of Physiology, former director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, and associate director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center. His laboratory is widely known for its studies of molecular motors and protein synthesis. For these studies, he has developed and built several new biophysical devices to track single fluorescent molecules using laser tweezers and total internal fluorescence microscopes. He has received many honors in his career: the Upjohn Achievement Award and a Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching from Penn, a Muscular Dystrophy Association Research Fellowship, a National Research Service Award and Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bowditch Lecturer of the American Physiological Society, Lamport Lecturer of the University of Washington, School of Medicine, and Distinguished Speaker for Graduate Student Research Forum, University of Cincinnati. Goldman was also a former president of the Biophysical Society.
Mitchell A. Lazar, MD, PhD, is the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor in Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, founding director of the Penn Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism (IDOM) as well as chief of the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His groundbreaking research has uncovered genetic and epigenomic mechanisms by which the environment interacts with the genome to regulate circadian rhythms and metabolism, and how these impact the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. He has received awards from numerous international societies and universities, and has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, is a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with appointments in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences’ department of Biology and in Penn Medicine’s department of Genetics, and is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor. Tishkoff studies human genetic diversity, specifically that of African populations, blending field, lab and computational approaches. Her work has not only elucidated African population history, but also how genetic variation affects traits such as disease susceptibility or ability to metabolize drugs. Tishkoff is a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, and a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award.
A full list of 2017 Academy Members available is available on the National Academy website.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
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