(reprinted from Dalhousie News, May 2002)
Doolittle, a Dalhousie biochemistry professor for more than 30 years, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Genomics, and Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) Program in Evolutionary Biology, is one of an estimated five scientists based in Canada to join the 1907 members of the NAS. Full members of the Academy must have US citizenship. Roughly a dozen other Canadians are among the 330 non-voting, ‘foreign associates’ of the organization.
“I’m quite proud,” said Doolittle. “This is a club to which I’ve always aspired to belong, but never imagined I would. I think this membership is important just because it’s so rare.” Doolittle joins the presidents of Harvard and Stanford and nearly 70 other prominent scientists as new inductees into the NAS. A graduate of Harvard and Stanford, Doolittle’s first and only academic post was with Dalhousie. He received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, was made a fellow of the CIAR and Director of the Evolutionary Biology Program in 1986.