Chad Mirkin Now Elected to All Three Branches of the National Academies

Northwestern University scientist Chad A. Mirkin, a world-renowned leader in nanotechnology research and its application, has been elected a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM).

He is the first at Northwestern and in the Midwest and the 10th in the world to be elected to all three branches of the National Academies. Mirkin was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2009.

Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering and director of Northwestern’s International Institute for Nanotechnology.

Membership in the IOM is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine in the United States. Mirkin is among 65 new members and five foreign associates recognized for their major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health.

Mirkin will be inducted into the Institute next October during its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. At least one-quarter of the institute’s membership is selected from outside the health professions. The newly elected members raise IOM's total membership to 1,817.

Mirkin, a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, is the recipient of more than 60 national and international prizes. He is known for the invention and development of biological and medical diagnostic systems based upon nanomaterials and new approaches to cancer therapeutics based upon gene regulation. Mirkin is the inventor and chief developer of three groundbreaking nanoscale fabrication and analytical tools: Dip-Pen Nanolithography, Polymer Pen Lithography and Beam-Pen Lithography. He is the founder of three Chicago-based companies: Aurasense, Nanosphere and NanoInk.

Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM is a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues.