Two 天美影视传媒 faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences:
- , professor of neurobiology and biophysics, and adjunct professor of applied mathematics
- , Arthur B. McDonald Professor of Physics and director at the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics
Fairhall and Hertzog are among 120 new members and 30 international members elected 鈥渋n recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,鈥� . Chartered in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides policy advice and input to governmental, nonprofit and private organizations.
develops theoretical approaches to understand how nervous systems process information. She collaborates with experimental labs across the UW, examining information processing in systems that range from single neurons 鈥� nerve cells that receive and conduct signals 鈥� to neural networks. She鈥檚 studied how mosquitoes use heat and chemical cues to forage, and how neural inputs drive muscle activation and biomechanics in hydra 鈥� tiny, tentacled invertebrates that live in water.
Fairhall grew up in Australia. She completed her master鈥檚 and Ph.D. in physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University before joining the UW School of Medicine faculty in 2004. Among Fairhall鈥檚 honors and awards are a Sloan Fellowship, a Burroughs Wellcome 鈥淐areers at the Scientific Interface鈥� Fellowship and a McKnight Scholar Award. She was named an Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator. In 2022, she was Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at the 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure in Paris.
Hertzog leads the UW , a research group that has designed and constructed detectors for high-precision experiments with muons 鈥� similar to electrons, but about 200 times more massive 鈥� conducted at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The UW team also has led efforts to analyze the massive amounts of data produced in that experiment, known as the聽.
The overarching goal is to test the 鈥� a theory to describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level.聽Studying the behavior of muons may help determine whether muons are interacting solely with known particles and forces, or if unknown particles or forces exist.
Hertzog completed his Ph.D. in physics at The College of William & Mary. Following time at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Illinois, he joined the UW as a professor in 2010. He鈥檚 served on numerous scientific advisory committees and panels and is coauthor of more than 200 papers and technical reports. He has mentored or co-mentored more than 20 Ph.D. students and 15 postdoctoral researchers.
With this year鈥檚 additions, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,662 active members and 556 international members.