October 18, 2021 – Two researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Eric Rubin and Renee Salas, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Rubin, an adjunct professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard Chan School and editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), was recognized for pioneering bacterial genetic tools being used to create the next generation of anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs. He is an esteemed microbiologist and an associate physician specializing in infectious disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His career at Harvard Chan School spans more than 20 years, during which he has primarily focused on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes human TB and is the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide.
Rubin, who grew up in Brockton, Mass., and earned MD and PhD degrees at Tufts University, was previously chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. In 2019, he was named editor-in-chief of NEJM.
Salas is a Yerby Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard Chan School (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) as well as a practicing emergency medicine physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She was recognized for her work to rapidly advance the medical community’s understanding at the nexus of climate change, health, and health care through highly influential and transformative work, such as the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and NEJM.
Salas conducts research to better understand how climate change impacts health and the healthcare system and works to develop evidence-based adaptation. She earned an MD from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine’s program that trains physician-investigators, and a master of public health from Harvard Chan School.
NAM is one of three academies that make up the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The National Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that work outside of government to provide objective advice on matters of science, technology, and health.
Read the National Academy of Medicine press release: National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members
