11:57 a.m., May 19, 2009----Rakesh Jain, who earned master's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in 1974 and 1976, respectively, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) at the organization's 146th annual meeting in April.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

Jain is the A. Werk Cook Professor of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

With this new honor, Jain becomes only the ninth person elected to all three U.S. academies -- the NAS, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Jain was elected to the IOM in 2003 and to the NAE in 2004, which cited him for “the integration of bioengineering with tumor biology and imaging gene expression and functions in vivo for drug delivery in tumors.”

In his recent election to the NAS, Jain is among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates to be recognized by the academy for their distinguished and continuing achievement in research.

Jain is regarded as a pioneer in the fields of tumor biology, drug delivery, in vivo imaging, and bioengineering. He is credited with fundamentally changing the thinking of scientists and clinicians about how molecularly targeted therapeutics actually work in animal models and cancer patients and how to combine them optimally to improve survival rates in cancer patients.

Jain, who earned his bachelor's degree in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has received dozens of awards during his career, including being named to the University of Delaware Alumni Wall of Fame in 2003 and being elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.

In a profile written in 2008 for the centennial celebration of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Jain said that he was encouraged by one of his professors at IIT to do his graduate work at the University of Delaware.

“I will be eternally grateful to Dr. Arthur B. Metzner, who, as chairperson, offered me a fellowship to come to Delaware to do my graduate work,” he said. “He was the one who arranged to pay my first month's salary in advance -- I had left India with only $50 in my pocket!”

Jain attributes his success to support from his teachers, mentors, friends, and colleagues at the many institutions with which he has been affiliated, including UD.

Established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation by President Abraham Lincoln, the NAS is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to furthering science and its use for the general welfare. The academy acts as an official adviser to the federal government in matters related to science and technology.

Article by Diane Kukich