Former IMP senior scientist Erwin Wagner elected to NAS

Erwin Wagner of the Medical University of Vienna was elected to the US’ National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Wagner was among the IMP’s founding faculty in 1988, and served as the institute’s deputy director from 1997 until he transferred to the CNIO in Madrid in 2008.

On 26 April, the US’ National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced the election of 120 new members. Only 30 of these are non-US scientists, selected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”. Among these is Erwin Wagner, who spent 20 years of his prolific research career at the IMP. The seminal work Wagner did at the IMP was celebrated in an “IMP Milestones” essay.

Wagner was IMP deputy director from 1997, and left the institute to become head of the cancer cell biology program of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Madrid in 2008. He returned to Vienna in 2019, where he is currently a group leader at the Department of Dermatology and Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.

The newly elected NAS members bring the total number of active members to 2,461, the total number of non-US members is 511. These so-called “International Members” are nonvoting members of the NAS.

Founded in 1863, the NAS is charged with “providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology (…) to provide scientific advice to the government 'whenever called upon' by any government department.” New members of the organisation are elected annually by current members. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honours in the scientific field. Members of the National Academy of Sciences serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation" on science, engineering, and medicine.

Further Reading
National Academy of Sciences
Erwin Wagner's lab at MedUni Vienna