Five SMART members are among the 84 new members and 22 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

The five elected include (in alphabetical order):

Daniel Hastings, SMART CEO & Director; and the Cecil and Ida Green Education Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, for contributions in spacecraft and space system-environment interactions, space system architecture, and leadership in aerospace research and education. 

Dina Katabi, SMART Future Urban Mobility (FM) Principal Investigator; and the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), for contributions to network congestion control and to wireless communications.  

Mark S. Daskin, Chair of SMART FM Scientific Advisory Board; Clyde W. Johnson Collegiate Professor and chair, department of industrial and operations engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  For leadership and creative contributions to location optimization and its application to industrial, service, and medical systems.

Michael S. Strano, SMART Principal Investigator (of upcoming Interdisciplinary Research Group); and the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, for contributions to nanotechnology, including fluorescent sensors for human health and solar and thermal energy devices. 

Paula Hammond, SMART Infectious Diseases Principal Investigator; and the David H. Koch Professor, head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and member of the Koch Institute for Cancer Research, for contributions to self-assembly of polyelectrolytes, colloids, and block copolymers at surfaces and interfaces for energy and health care applications.

Our heartiest congratulations to all five of them.