Awards and Recognitions HMS Community

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A view of Gordon Hall, looking up the columns to the roof and sky above
Image: Steve Lipofsky

Eight Harvard Medical School faculty members have been newly elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

Election to the NAM 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.

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“I am deeply honored to welcome these extraordinary health and medicine leaders and researchers into the National Academy of Medicine,” said NAM President Victor Dzau.

“Their demonstrated excellence in tackling public health challenges, leading major discoveries, improving health care, advancing health policy, and addressing health equity will critically strengthen our collective ability to tackle the most pressing health challenges of our time.”

One hundred new members, who were chosen by current members, were announced during the NAM annual meeting on October 20.

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The newly elected members from HMS are:

  • Facundo Batista, HMS senior lecturer on immunology, part-time, at Massachusetts General Hospital, for his work in unraveling the biology of antibody-producing B cells to better understand how the immune system responds to infectious diseases.
  • Christopher Chen, HMS visiting research professor of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, for pioneering contributions and leadership in cell and tissue engineering, particularly in the of cell and tissue assembly, structure, mechanics, and function.
  • Wendy Garrett, HMS professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, for research into the role of microbiomes in inflammatory bowel diseases, intestinal immunity, kidney disease, and colorectal cancer that has advanced the understanding of microbiome-host interactions and how microbial metabolites shape immune system function in health and disease.
  • Joel Habener, HMS professor of medicine, emeritus, at Mass General, for the discovery of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) and its multiple actions against the development of diabetes, resulting in its current use as a leading effective treatment for type 2 diabetes and obesity.
  • Sun Hur, the HMS Oscar M. Schloss, MD Professor of Pediatrics and professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Boston Children’s Hospital, for elucidating the self- versus non-self RNA discrimination mechanism for key sensors of viral infection known as RIG-I-like receptors, revealing macromolecular assemblies that help the innate immune system sense foreign nucleic acids.
  • Oluwaseun Johnson-Akeju, the HMS Dr. Henry Isaiah Dorr Professor of Research and Teaching in Anaesthetics and Anaesthesia at Mass General, for being a leading authority on the neurophysiological and neurocognitive effects of anesthetics and perioperative stressors.
  • Sabrina Paganoni, HMS associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mass General, for her leadership in paradigm-shifting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research and care, development of innovative national platform trial infrastructures to accelerate testing of novel agents, and advancement of molecular and functional biomarker identification to facilitate precision medicine approaches.
  • Clifford Woolf, HMS professor of neurology at Boston Children’s, for his work on the discovery of central sensitization through fundamental basic neuroscience studies, providing profound novel insight into clinical pain conditions.

Established originally as the Institute of Medicine in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the NAM addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. NAM works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering — a group known as the National Academies — to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions.

Adapted from NAM materials.