Maryellen Giger and Xiang Zhang are among 65 new members and 9 foreign associates named this year to the National Academy of Engineering, NAE president Charles Vest announced last month.
Giger, an SPIE Member and longtime committee chair, is director of the Imaging Research Institute in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She was selected for her contributions to digital signal analysis for improved cancer detection and treatment, and for innovations in interdisciplinary training. She is Symposium Chair for SPIE Medical Imaging 2011, has served on numerous SPIE conference and program committees, and has published nearly 80 papers with SPIE.
Zhang, an SPIE Fellow, is Chancellor's Professor, Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair Professor, and director of the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. He was selected for his pioneering contributions in metamaterials and creation of the first optical superlens with resolutions beyond the fundamental diffraction limit. He has contributed more than 50 papers to SPIE, including one on optical metamaterials to be presented at SPIE Photonics Europe in April and three to be presented at SPIE Optics and Photonics in August.
Several other frequent SPIE authors were named this year to NAE as well. Among them;
Eugene Haller, University of California, Berkeley, author of more than 40 SPIE papers including one to be presented at SPIE Optics and Photonics in August on "ZnOSe alloys for solar hydrogen production from water."
David Miller, Stanford Univ., author of more than 20 SPIE papers, with the most recent at SPIE Photonics West 2010.
Thomas Keuch, University of Wisconsin, Madison, author of nearly a dozen SPIE papers including two at SPIE Photonics West 2010.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering 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."
Read the full NAE press release.