University of Chicago Professors Rina Foygel Barber and Margaret Gardel were elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 as a society of distinguished scholars charged with advising the nation on matters of science and technology. Election to the NAS is a widely-accepted mark of excellence in the sciences and considered one of the highest public honors scientists can receive: only 120 new members may be elected each year. Since its founding, the NAS has elected 128 University of Chicago faculty to its ranks.

Professor Barber is the Louis Block Professor in the Department of Statistics and the College. Her research focuses on developing and analyzing estimation, inference, and optimization tools for structured high-dimensional data problems. Her work involves developing methods for false discovery rate control and distribution-free inference in settings with under-sampled data or unknown distributions. She also collaborates on modeling and optimization problems in medical image reconstruction.

Previously, Professor Barber was an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Statistics at Stanford University. She received her PhD in Statistics at the University of Chicago.

Professor Gardel is the Horace B. Horton Professor of Physics and Molecular Engineering and Director of the James Franck Institute. Her research focuses on how collections of biological molecules build soft materials that enable cell and tissue-scale physiological processes of adhesion, migration, and shape change.

Prior to coming to UChicago, Gardel completed her postdoctoral research as a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT and at Scripps Research Institute. She earned her PhD at Harvard University.

Congratulations to Professor Barber and Professor Gardel!