Top from left: Shanhui Fan, Carlos Ernesto Guestrin, and Alexandria Boehm. Bottom from left: Howard Allan Zebker and Carolyn Bertozzi. (Image credit: Courtesy of Shanhui Fan/Hoyt Koepke/Rod Searcey/Courtesy of Howard Allen Zebker/Do Pham/National Academy of Engineering)

Faculty members Carolyn Bertozzi, Alexandria Boehm, Shanhui Fan, Carlos Ernesto Guestrin, and Howard Allan Zebker have been elected to the 2024 class of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

The Stanford faculty members are among the 114 researchers nominated and chosen by their peers to join the academy this year, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded engineers.

Carolyn Bertozzi, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences and the Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H, has been recognized by NAE for “engineering tools using bio-orthogonal chemistry for novel biomaterials, diagnostics, and drug delivery systems.” Her research spans the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface sugars important to human health and disease. Her research group profiles changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation, and bacterial infection. Bertozzi and her lab use this information to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in immuno-oncology.

Alexandria Boehm is a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the School of Engineering and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability (SDSS) and a professor of oceans in SDSS. She was recognized for her research aimed at protecting public health from environmentally transmitted infectious disease. Her work is focused on key problems in both developed and developing countries with the overarching goal of designing and testing novel interventions and technologies for reducing the burden of disease. Boehm is also interested in coastal water quality where her work addresses the sources, transformation, transport, and ecology of biocolloids, as well as sources and fate of nitrogen. She is a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI).

Shanhui Fan is the Joseph and Hon Mai Goodman Professor in the School of Engineering. He was elected for his contributions to demonstrating that “the coldness of space” relative to Earth can be a major energy source for humankind. His research focuses on the fundamental studies of nanophotonic structures, especially photonic crystals and meta-materials, and the application of these structures in energy and information technology. He is a professor of electrical engineering, a senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy, and a member of Stanford Bio-X.

Carlos Ernesto Guestrin, a professor of computer science, was elected for his contributions to scalable systems and algorithms enabling the broad application of machine learning in science and industry. His current work is focused on the design of trustworthy and ethical AI systems, developing techniques for explainability, fairness, and human-AI interaction. Guestrin is also interested in broadening the impactful and thoughtful application of AI through the creation of open-source machine learning methods and systems. He is also a member of Stanford Bio-X.

Howard Allan Zebker, professor of electrical engineering in the School of Engineering and of geophysics in SDSS, was elected for his development of radar interferometry for space-born sensors that measure meter-scale topography and millimeter-scale surface deformation. His research focuses on interferometric radar remote sensing applications and technique development, as applied to studies of the Earth and solar system. He is also an affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Jen-Hsun Huang, MS ’92, was also elected as a new NAE member for “high-powered graphics processing units, fueling the artificial intelligence revolution.” The Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center at Stanford is named for the alumnus, who is the co-founder of NVIDIA.