Professor Squire Booker Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Squire Booker, Evan Pugh University Professor of Chemistry at Penn State, was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Election to the academy is considered to be both a mark of excellence and one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. New members are elected by their peers in recognition of their contributions to original research. The NAS works to further science in America as well as providing independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conducting other activities to solve complex scientific problems.

Dr. Booker’s research focuses on natural product biosynthesis, with a particular interest in the methylation or sulfidation of unactivated carbon centers and the use of S-adenosylmethionine and iron-sulfur clusters in enzyme catalysis.

Among other awards, Dr. Booker received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, and an ACS Cope Scholar award. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013 and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.  He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Dr. Booker will be formally inducted into the academy at a ceremony next year.