ASPB President-Elect Rick Amasino and ASPB member Joseph Ecker have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Academy reported April 25.

Amasino is Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison Ecker is professor, Plant Biology Laboratory and Genome Analysis Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego.

"Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in American science and engineering," said Ralph Cicerone, who became president of the Academy in 2005. Barbara Schaal, an NAS member since 1999 who was elected last year as the academy's first woman vice president, noted, "This year's new class represents outstanding accomplishment in a wide variety of disciplines."

Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 2,013. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with citizenship outside the United States. Today's election brings the total number of foreign associates to 371.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.