Two researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, AMY BASTIAN and JENNIFER ELISSEEFF, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, (NAS), which is also the publisher of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.

Bastian is the chief scientific officer and director of the Center for Movement Studies at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and professor of neuroscience, neurology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Bastian combines her expertise in neuroscience and physical therapy to study human movement. Specifically, she has a focus on the effects of disease and damage to the central nervous system on movement in adults and children, as well as how people learn new patterns of movement. She received her doctorate and did postdoctoral fellowship training in neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2001.

Elisseeff is the Morton Goldberg Professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Translational Tissue Engineering Center — a research hub for immunoengineering in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Wilmer Eye Institute. 

Since joining the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2001, she has developed biomaterials and designed regenerative medicine technologies. Her lab is studying how the immune system responds to biomaterials and how these materials can aid tissue repair. Elisseeff received her doctorate in medical engineering from Harvard–MIT and did her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. She is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

Bastian and Elisseeff join over 120 members elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year, who will now be a part of over 2,500 active members of the organization. Scientists elected to NAS are selected by their peers based on their exceptional contributions in research.