Biology Professor Terrence Sejnowski Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

February 9, 2011

By Kim McDonald

Terrence J. Sejnowski

Biology Professor Terrence Sejnowski has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Sejnowski, who is Francis Crick professor and director of the computational neurobiology laboratory at Salk Institute for Biological Studies and a professor of neurobiology at UCSD, was cited by the academy “for contributions to artificial and real neural network algorithms and applying signal processing models to neuroscience.”

Sejnowski was one of 68 new members and nine foreign associates who were elected this year to the NAE, bringing the total U.S. membership of the academy to 2,290 and the number of foreign associates to 202. He was also one of three UCSD professors, two of them from the Division of Biological Sciences, who were elected last year to the National Academy of Sciences. The other biology professor elected to the NAS last year was Susan Golden.

Also elected to the NAE this year was John Arthur Orcutt, UCSD professor of geophysics and distinguished researcher at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He was cited “for international leadership in development of new ocean-observing infrastructure and environmental and geophysics research.”

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

View the  complete list of new members this year.