National Academy of Sciences inducts two Missouri scientists at D.C. ceremony

Tayler Gilmore

Missouri News Network

Two Missouri scientists will be among 143 new members inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences on Friday.

Ursula W. Goodenough, a professor emerita of biology, and William B. McKinnon, a professor of earth and planetary sciences — both affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis — are scheduled to be in Washington for the ceremony, where new members carry out the tradition of formally signing the Registry of Members.

The National Academy of Sciences, established by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, is tasked with advising the nation on issues related to science and technology, according to the NAS website.

Goodenough and McKinnon raise the number of Missouri scientists who are members of the academy to 65.

Membership is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can receive, according to the academy’s website. Every year, members nominate scientists to join the organization and an election is held at the group’s annual meeting. Goodenough and McKinnon are among 120 members and 23 international members elected in 2023.

“I’m very proud, very honored. I feel very humble, because there are lots of excellent people who are joining me,” said Goodenough, who studied the sexual phase in the life cycle of a green algae called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which can be found in soil.

McKinnon said he never expected to be elected to the academy.

“I’m almost 70, so it’s a nice thing to happen in my case. Like, you wake up one day and you realize you’re a senior scientist and you wonder, ‘how did I get here?’” he said.

McKinnon is being honored for research that includes the structure and histories of outer-planet satellites as well as impact cratering throughout the solar system. He is also a co-investigator for various NASA missions and projects.

The 65 members from Missouri include scientists whose distinguished work has involved disciplines such as immunology, physics, astronomy, environmental sciences and geophysics. Eleven of them are affiliated with the University of Missouri in Columbia and one with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and their expertise includes disciplines such as microbial sciences, plant biology, genetics and biochemistry.

Michael Roberts, chancellor’s professor emeritus at MU, was elected in 1996. His lab studies reproductive biology.

“I was almost certainly elected because of my part in discovering how pregnancy is recognized and then maintained in farm species, especially cattle and sheep,” said Roberts, explaining that his group first reported the role of a protein called an interferon in making the mother’s womb hospitable for the growing embryo.

“For me, election brought great personal satisfaction and a feeling of enormous gratitude to all the young people I had mentored and who had done most of the hands-on work over the previous 25 years that led to the recognition by NAS,” he said.

James A. Birchler, the curators’ distinguished professor of biological sciences at MU, was elected in 2011. He said that although membership in the NAS hasn’t changed much for him, he is pleased to support the next generation as he was supported by others.

“It is also fun to attend the annual meeting, because everyone is in a celebratory mood and one can learn about the latest science across disciplines,” Birchler said.

The presentation ceremony where Goodenough and McKinnon will be inducted into the NAS starts at 6 p.m. Friday. It will also be livestreamed on the academy’s website. After the meeting, the recording will also be posted online.

The next group of members will be announced Tuesday following an election by its current members.

The NAS is one of three nonprofit academies that, along with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, are collectively referred to as the National Academies.