KANSAS CITY, MO - The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is pleased to announce that Investigator and American Cancer Society Research Professor, R. Scott Hawley, Ph.D., has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his excellence in original scientific research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Hawley will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 149th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Hawley, elected along with 71 others, becomes the first Stowers investigator elected to the NAS, and may be the first NAS member elected while residing in Kansas City. There are currently just over 2,000 active NAS members. Among the NAS's renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. Over 180 living Academy members have won Nobel Prizes.

One of today's pre-eminent genetics and cancer researchers, Hawley received a doctorate in genetics from the University of Washington. He served as president of the Genetics Society of America in 2010 and in 2008 received that society's Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is widely known for his teaching, for writing numerous textbooks and reviews, and for his research on meiosis - the fundamental process responsible for producing sperm and eggs with an appropriate number of chromosomes. He was recently named dean of The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

"The Stowers Institute is proud of Scott's research accomplishments and his passion for scientific exploration and education," said David Chao, president and CEO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. "We are delighted and privileged to have a world-class scholar not only leading a pioneering research program but also serving as the dean of our new graduate program. Membership in the NAS is a tremendous honor, and Scott is most deserving."

For Hawley, election to the academy is a great achievement and a chance to collaborate with other scientists. "I subscribe to the philosophy that there are three functions of a scholar: to learn, to write and to teach. Election to the NAS will allow me even more opportunities to further that mission. I am most humbled to receive this honor."

About the National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences has served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government. For more information, or for the full list of newly elected members, visit http://nas.nasonline.org/site/PageServer

About the Stowers Institute for Medical Research

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a non-profit, basic biomedical research organization dedicated to improving human health by studying the fundamental processes of life. Jim Stowers, founder of American Century Investments, and his wife Virginia opened the Institute in 2000. Since then, the Institute has spent over a half billion dollars in pursuit of its mission. Currently the Institute is home to nearly 500 researchers and support personnel; over 20 independent research programs; and more than a dozen technology development and core facilities. Learn more about the Institute at www.stowers.org and about its new graduate program at www.stowers.org/gradschool.