Dorothy Cheney, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Abraham Nitzan, a chemist who will join Penn’s faculty in July, have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a United States scientist or engineer.

NAS members are selected for “their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” Cheney and Nitzen are part of the 2015 Academy class of 84 members and 21 foreign associates from 15 countries.

Cheney is a professor in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Biology. Her research focuses on communication and social behavior in non-human primates. Since 1992, she has conducted long-term observational field studies of baboons in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, making insights into how social relationships and behavior relate to reproductive success. She has also studied vervet monkeys in Kenya and mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

Beginning in July, Nitzan, currently of Tel Aviv University, will join Penn’s faculty as a professor in Penn Arts & Sciences’ Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on theoretical aspects of chemical dynamics, the branch of chemistry that describes the nature of physical and chemical processes that underlie the progress of chemical reactions. In particular, his studies deal with chemical processes involving interactions between light and matter, chemical reactions in condensed phases and at interfaces, as well as transport phenomena in complex systems. 

A complete list of the 2015 Academy members is available online.