Four UCLA faculty received one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a scientist or engineer, when they were elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

The newly-elected members all hold appointments in the UCLA College.

"These elections to the National Academy of Sciences are recognition of superb achievement by some of our finest scholars," said Patricia O'Brien, executive dean of the UCLA College. "UCLA is among the nation's leaders in election of faculty to all of the principal organizations that recognize scholarly achievement, and the new elections to the National Academy of Sciences are vivid examples of the scholarship across the academic fields across the campus."

The 2005 elected members of the National Academy of Sciences from UCLA are:

William A.V. Clark, professor of geography

Clark's research and teaching focuses on the internal changes in cities in the United States, especially the changes that occur because of residential mobility and migration. Clark, who came to UCLA in 1970, conducts large-scale studies of demographic change in the neighborhoods of large metropolitan areas, looking at white flight, how population flows between cities and suburbs, the legal issues that affect urban life, and the interaction of class, race and geography in metropolitan regions.

Wayne L. Hubbell, professor of chemistry and biochemistry
Jules Stein Professor of Ophthalmology

Hubbell's research focuses on understanding the relationship between the molecular structure of a protein and the changes that control its function. Of particular interest to Hubbell, who joined the UCLA faculty in 1983, are membrane proteins that behave as "molecular switches" -- the proteins whose structures are switched to an active state by a physical or chemical signal. Also under study by Hubbell is light-activated rhodopsin, the visual pigment in cells of photoreceptor cells of the retina.

Stanley Osher, professor of mathematics
Director of Special Projects, UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics.

Osher has made fundamental contributions to applied mathematics, computational science and scientific computing. He has also co-founded three companies based, in part, on his research. Osher, who came to UCLA in 1976, has applied his pioneering work to the field of image processing and, in particular, to video image enhancing and movie animation. Osher is currently director of special projects at the UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, the campus organization that launches new collaborations between mathematicians and scientists about interdisciplinary problems, and to broaden the range of applications in which mathematics is used.

Joan Selverstone Valentine, professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Valentine is a leading figure working at the interface of inorganic chemistry and biology. Her recent work focuses on copper-containing proteins that play important roles in organisms ranging from bacteria and yeast to plants and animals. Valentine has pioneered the chemistry of superoxide anion and its significance to life processes, including the mechanism responsible for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Valentine, who has served on the UCLA faculty since 1984, also explores yeast studies of oxidative stress and anti-oxidants -- studies that may lead to a better understanding of the role of "oxidative stress" in processes leading to human aging, cell death, and disease.