Berkeleyan

National Academy of Engineering elects three from Berkeley

20 February 2008

Three Berkeley faculty are among 65 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), it was announced Feb. 8. Membership in the academy is considered one of the highest professional distinctions accorded an American engineer.

The new Berkeley members are Enrique Iglesia, Chancellor's Professor of Chemical Engineering and a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Robert Sawyer, Class of 1935 Professor of Energy Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and James Sethian, vice chair for undergraduate affairs and professor in the Department of Mathematics and head of the mathematics department at LBNL.

Iglesia is being honored for his contributions to the understanding of catalyst structure-function relationships, the development of novel catalysts, and leadership in the field of catalysis; Sawyer, for his pioneering work in reducing energy consumption and improving the environment, and for contributions to our understanding of air pollution; and Sethian, for the development of efficient methods of tracking moving interfaces.

There are now 85 Berkeley faculty members in the National Academy of Engineering, which has 2,227 U.S. members and 194 foreign associates. The three new Berkeley honorees are among the new academy members to be inducted at an Oct. 5 ceremony in Washington, D.C.