Professor V W W Yam, Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor in Chemistry and Energy, was elected the Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for her excellence in original scientific research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Professor Yam will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 150th annual meeting in Washington, D.C, along with 83 other members. 

Professor Yam’s pioneering research has helped put The University of Hong Kong on the academic map nationally and internationally, and her outstanding teaching is a draw for talented graduate students and her team. As a scientist grown up in Hong Kong, Professor was flattered and felt greatly honoured to be elected. “The most gratifying thing is that they recognize and honour a purely homegrown HKU graduate," she said. 

There are currently 2,152 active NAS members. Among the NAS's renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. Nearly 200 living Academy members have won Nobel Prizes. 

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences has served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government. For more information, or for the full list of newly elected members, visit http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer