Three Stanford researchers are among the 84 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Raj Chetty, left, Daniel Herschlag and Trevor Hastie are new Stanford members of the National Academy of Sciences. (Image credit: Steve Castillo; courtesy of Daniel Herschlag and Trevor Hastie)

The new members from Stanford are Nadarajan Chetty professor of economics; Trevor Hastie, the John A. Overdeck Professor and professor of statistics and of biomedical data sciences; and Daniel Herschlag, professor of biochemistry.

Chetty’s research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His current research focuses on equality of opportunity, asking how we can give children from disadvantaged backgrounds better chances to succeed.

Hastie specializes in applied nonparametric regression and classification. His current research focuses on applied statistical modeling and prediction problems in biology and genomics, medicine and industry.

Herschlag studies the fundamental behavior of RNA and proteins and how they affect biology more broadly. His group takes an interdisciplinary approach to answer questions such as how enzymes work, how RNA folds and how proteins recognize RNA.

The academy is a private, nonprofit institution that was created in 1863 to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. Scholars are elected in recognition of their outstanding contributions to research. This year’s election brings the total of active academy members to 2,382.