Kobilka, Snyder elected to AAAS membership

Two School of Medicine faculty members were among the 197 “thinkers and doers” elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony Oct. 10 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The academy, one of the country’s most prestigious honorary societies, is a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to academy-led studies of science and technology policy, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and education.

Ten Stanford faculty members were elected this year. The two from the School of Medicine are Brian Kobilka, MD, and Michael Snyder, PhD.

Kobilka is the Helene Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology and professor of molecular and cellular physiology. He also shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He researches the structure and function of cell-surface receptors called adrenergic receptors that form the interface between the sympathetic nervous system and the cardiovascular system. He is a member of Bio-X and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.

Snyder is the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS, Professor in Genetics and chairs the department. His research touches a variety of topics in genetics, including mapping transcriptional factor binding networks, analyzing individual- and species-level differences in DNA sequences and regulatory elements, and using genetics to understand the molecular basis of disease. He is a member of Bio-X, the Child Health Research Institute, the Stanford Cancer Institute and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.