Yale Professor Named to National Academy of Sciences

Serap Aksoy, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, is among 120 new members elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed on a U.S. scientist or engineer.

Aksoy, Ph.D., was named to the NAS with three other Yale scientists: Hui Cao, Ph.D.; Lieping Chen, M.D., Ph.D.; and Debra Fischer, Ph.D. Aksoy, Cao and Fischer also are among a record number of 59 women elected to the academy in a single year.

“The historic number of women elected this year reflects the critical contributions that they are making in many fields of science, as well as a concerted effort by our academy to recognize those contributions and the essential value of increasing diversity in our ranks,” said Marcia McNutt, NAS president. “I am pleased to welcome all of our new members, and I look forward to engaging with them in the work of the National Academies.”

Aksoy is currently the acting chair of the Department of Epidemiology, and her research focuses on the biological and epidemiological basis of mammalian host-pathogen-insect vector interactions, particularly focusing on tsetse flies and parasitic African trypanosomes they vector.

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