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Richard D. Kolodner, professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors accorded to American scientists.

The election of Kolodner, who is also leader of UCSD Cancer Center’s Cancer Genetics Program and head of the Laboratory of Cancer Genetics at the San Diego branch of the Ludwig Institute, brings to seven the number of Cancer Center scientists who are members of the National Academy of Sciences. UCSD has 65 faculty who are members of the academy, a prestigious organization of 1,843 scientists and engineers established by Congress in 1863 to serve as adviser to the federal government on science and technology.

Kolodner, who is the author or co-author of more than 170 scientific publications, is an associate editor of Cell and Cancer Research, and serves on the editorial board of Cellular and Molecular Biology. Before moving to San Diego in 1997, he was a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is best known for his work on the fundamental mechanisms of DNA recombination and repair, and on the genetics of inherited human cancer susceptibility.

He is one of 60 members and 15 foreign associates from nine countries newly elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Other members of the UCSD Cancer Center who are in the National Academy of Sciences, their departments, and the year of election are: Webster Cavenee, Medicine, 1997; Marilyn Farquhar, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 1984; Kyriacos C. Nicolaou, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1996; George Palade, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 1961; Michael G. Rosenfeld, Medicine, 1994; and Susan Taylor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1996.