Angelaki elected to National Academy of Sciences

Less than a week after Dora Angelaki was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) — one of the nation’s foremost scholarly honors — she also was elected to the National Academy of Sciences — one of the highest honors that can be conferred upon a U.S. scientist or engineer.

Angelaki is an adjunct professor of electrical and computer engineering and adjunct professor of psychology at Rice and a professor and the Wilhelmina Robertson Chair in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dora Angelaki (photo courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine)

“I am deeply honored to be accepted into the National Academy of Sciences and the AAAS to join the company of so many outstanding scientists and scholars,” she said. “It is truly a proud and humbling moment.”

Angelaki is one of 84 new National Academy of Sciences members from 15 countries recognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Her research focuses on understanding how multisensory information is processed, integrated and transformed into either commands for movement or perceptual decisions.

Angelaki joined Baylor in 2011 to lead the Department of Neuroscience and in 2012 received a joint appointment at Rice, where she serves on the Neuroscience Steering Committee, teaches in neuroscience courses and performs collaborative research with Rice faculty.

She has an undergraduate degree from the National Technical University in Athens and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and at the University of Zurich.

The National Academy of Sciences was created by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 and is one of four organizations that make up the National Academies, along with the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. All are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology and health policy advice under a congressional charter.

Other current Rice faculty members who have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences include Robert Curl, Naomi Halas, James Kinsey, Herbert Levine, K.C. Nicolaou, José Onuchic and Peter Wolynes.