The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced the election of Professor Judith Berman of Tel Aviv University (TAU) as a member.

The Academy currently comprises 2,750 American scientists and an additional 557 international members representing all scientific disciplines. Professor Berman is the 47th Israeli researcher to be elected to the NAS, and the sixth from TAU over the past 50 years. The Academy’s membership includes some of Israel’s most distinguished scientists, including approximately 200 Nobel Prize laureates.

“I am grateful for this recognition of the importance of my research and contributions,” Professor Berman said.

Professor Berman of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences is a leading scientist in the fields of microbiology and genetics. Her research focuses on cellular response mechanisms to drug treatment and the effects of genetic mutations on these mechanisms, which enable drug tolerance in the pathogen Candida albicans, a yeast that causes infections in humans. Professor Berman has published extensively in leading international scientific journals. She also was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AmAcadA&S) this year and was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2019. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has been a member of the American Society for Microbiology since 2007, and is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Minnesota in the US and an Honorary Professor at Exeter University in the UK.

Professor Dan Peer, Vice President for Research and Development at TAU, said, “Professor Judith Berman is an outstanding researcher in the fields of microbiology and genetics. Her election to the US National Academy of Sciences is a source of great pride for TAU and a recognition of her achievements at the highest international level.”

Established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the US National Academy of Sciences advises the American government and nation on matters of science, engineering, and medicine. Membership in the Academy is for life, and each year up to 120 new scientists from the United States and up to 30 foreign scientists from around the world are elected to its ranks. The US National Academy of Sciences is also the publisher of the prestigious scientific journal PNAS.