Ten Harvard Faculty Members Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Ten Harvard affiliates were elected to the National Academy of Medicine — a nonprofit organization that provides advice on issues related to medicine and health policy — last Monday.

The affiliates, who account for a tenth of the Academy’s newly elected members, were recognized for their demonstration of “outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service,” according to the Academy’s press release.

The faculty members — who are affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT — are Anthony P. Adamis, Elizabeth C. Engle, Tejal K. Gandhi, Daphne A. Haas-Kogan ’86, Scott L. Rauch, Peter L. Slavin ’79, Benjamin D. Sommers, Beth Stevens, Mehmet Toner, and Catherine J. Wu ’88.

Though National Academy of Medicine President Victor J. Dzau was not immediately available for comment, he spoke to the significance of being elected to the Academy in the press release.

“These newly elected members represent the most exceptional scholars and leaders whose remarkable work has advanced science, medicine, and health in the U.S. and around the globe,” he said.

Upon hearing of her election, Haas-Kogan, a professor of radiation oncology at the Medical School, said she was initially shocked but later felt grateful for the recognition.

“I have to confess I feel very undeserving and really feel that I owe it to all the people who have been on all my various teams throughout my career,” she said.

Sommers, a professor of health policy and economics at the School of Public Health, said he does not foresee that his election to the Academy will change his work’s focus on improving access to quality healthcare.

“That remains my priority,” he said. “But it does give a sense of recognition that the work that I and my colleagues have been doing has value.”

“It is further motivation to keep doing this sort of research,” he added.

Toner, a professor of surgery at the Medical School, said he feels his election to the Academy gives him a “bigger platform” to address medicine’s most pressing issues.

“This is not just a simple accolade that you collect, but it also comes with responsibilities,” he said.

Wu, chief of the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said the election of nine of her fellow Harvard faculty members to the Academy is both unsurprising and a testament to the pioneering work of the Harvard community.

“It just speaks to the breadth of work that we as a community undertake,” Wu said. “We are truly in a vibrant community of scholars and scientists and physicians who have a deep passion and vision for how we want to make things better for our patients.”

Adamis, an ophthalmology lecturer at the Medical School, was elected to the Academy for his co-discovery of a growth factor that contributes to eye disease. His team’s previous work involving this growth factor also won them the 2014 Champalimaud Vision Award, a prestigious award in the field of vision science.

Adamis said his career achievements largely stem from work that originated at Harvard.

“It was all the opportunities I had there as a faculty member, to have protected time to do research for what I wanted to do,” he said.