Astronomer elected to National Academy of Sciences

By David Brand

Martha P. Haynes, professor of astronomy at Cornell, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Her election brings to 41 the number of Cornell faculty members in the NAS. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors for a U.S. scientist or engineer.

Cornell President Hunter Rawlings said he was delighted to hear of Haynes' election to the academy. "Martha Haynes' research on the evolution of spiral galaxies and her leadership within the astronomy community have made her a major figure in her field and a valued colleague and teacher at Cornell," he said. "Her election to the academy further enhances Cornell's already strong position as an international center for astronomy research and teaching."

Haynes was among 60 new members and 15 foreign associates in nine countries named to the academy at its 137th annual meeting May 2.

At Cornell Haynes has a long history of dedication to teaching undergraduates and has been director of undergraduate studies in the astronomy department for a decade. She won the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Excellence in Advising in 1993.

The Cornell astronomer also has won recognition for mapping the distribution of matter in the nearby universe. She was born in Boston and attended Wellesley College (B.A., special honors in astronomy, 1973) and Indiana University (M.A., 1975; Ph.D. 1978). She began her professional career in 1981 as a research associate at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), operated by Cornell for the National Science Foundation. That same year she became assistant director for telescope operations and assistant scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.Va.

Haynes joined Cornell's Department of Astronomy in 1983 as an assistant professor and was named a full professor in 1991, associated both with NAIC and the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. Among the many honors she has received was her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. A decade earlier she was awarded the Henry Draper Medal by the NAS. For the past two years she has chaired the National Research Council's panel on radio and submillimeter astronomy.