Announcements: Kudos

Seven NIHers Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2024

Congratulations to the seven NIHers who were elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2024. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. 

“This class of new members represents the most exceptional researchers and leaders in health and medicine, who have made significant breakthroughs, led the response to major public health challenges, and advanced health equity,” said NAM president Victor Dzau in a news release.

The NAM announced the election of 100 new members—90 of whom are regular members and 10 who are international—on October 21, 2024. For a complete list of NIH scientists elected to NAM, see https://irp.nih.gov/about-us/honors/the-national-academy-of-medicine.

Stephen Chanock, Director, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI: For being an international leader in cancer genetics, identifying susceptibility alleles in more than a dozen cancers. He has awards for first describing clonal mosaicism and its relationship to cancer and aging. He has created and fostered international consortia on BRCA genetics and COVID-19.

Janine Clayton, Director, Office of Research on Women’s Health: For advancing policy, program, and practice innovations to improve the health of all women by catalyzing integration of sex/gender factors across the biomedical research continuum to galvanize discovery and equity. She is the architect of NIH’s high-impact 2016 Sex as a Biological Variable policy, a landmark upgrade for research.

Lindsey Criswell, Director, NIAMS: For defining genetic and epigenetic contributions to development of autoimmune rheumatic disorders and their relationship to specific serologic and clinical phenotypes and to genetic ancestry of patients. Her work has transformed understanding of the pathogenesis of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s disease, and related diseases.

Jeanne Marrazzo, Director, NIAID: For leading transformative research that has redefined our understanding of relationships between the vaginal microbiome and female reproductive tract infections, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), hormonal contraception, and risk of STI/HIV acquisition. She has had key roles in NIH-funded networks — Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium and HIV Prevention Trials.

Niki Moutsopoulos, Senior Investigator, Intramural Research Program, NIDCR: For making seminal contributions toward understanding and treating the prevalent human oral disease periodontitis. Her laboratory has contributed to the understanding of both homeostatic and pathogenic inflammation in the oral cavity, informing interventions for both rare and common forms of aggressive forms of periodontal disease.

Avindra Nath Chief, Section of Infections of the Nervous System, and clinical director, NINDS: For pioneering research and strong leadership in emerging and persistent infections of the nervous system by studying pathophysiology, developing treatments, and conducting clinical studies. This includes retroviruses, Ebola, Zika, nodding syndrome, and COVID-19 as well as Long COVID, ME/CFS, and Gulf War syndrome.

Nina Schor, Deputy Director for Intramural Research, Office of the Director: For pioneering research that has radically improved outcomes for children with tumors of the nervous system. She has been a role model, mentor, and beacon to countless other female physician-scientists throughout her amazing career, from bench scientist to academic dean to NIH leader.

Kaitlyn Sadtler Named to Time Magazine’s 2024 TIME100NEXT List

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Sadtler, Stadtman investigator and chief of NIBIB’s Section on Immunoengineering, for being named in Time Magazine’s 2024 TIME100NEXT list. She is known for her research unravelling the immune system, novel methods of tracking COVID-19 cases during the pandemic, and her work on tissue regeneration and biomaterials, just to name a few.

Sadler, an immunologist and bioengineer, is no stranger to being nominated to esteemed lists. She’s also been recognized on BioSpace’s 10 Life Science Innovators Under 40 To Watch and StemCell Tech’s Six Immunologists and Science Communicators to Follow. She was named a TED Fellow, was selected as a 2020 TEDMED Research Scholar, and was elected to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Science, among her multiple awards.

According to TIME “the TIME100 Next list was created to recognize that many of today’s most influential leaders are…individuals who are not waiting long in life to make an impact. Nor are they eager to respect the status quo by following the traditional power structures and pathways that have determined what influence looked like in the past. TIME100 Next has no age requirements; its aim is to recognize that influence does not have them either, nor does leadership look like it once did. Indeed, the majority of the individuals on this year’s list are leaders of color; more than half are women.” Click here to read how this year’s list was chosen.