Two New York University professors, Helmut Hofer of NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Anthony Movshon, director of the university’s Center for Neural Science, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Washington, D.C.-based organization announced today.
Hofer and Movshon were among the 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from nine countries who were elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Hofer, who has been a professor of mathematics at the Courant Institute since 1997, focuses on symplectic geometry, dynamical systems, and partial differential equations. He came to NYU from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Previously, Hofer was on the faculties of the University of Bath, Rutgers University, and Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum.
Movshon, a faculty member in NYU’s Department of Psychology and a former Howard Hughes Investigator, is best known for his path-breaking work on how the brain encodes and decodes visual information and in the mechanisms that put that information to use in the control of behavior. Movshon, who is also an adjunct professor at NYU Langone Medical Center, joined the NYU faculty in 1975.
Both Hofer and Movshon are Silver Professors, a designation given to outstanding scholars in NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science. These endowed professorships were made possible by a $175 million gift from the estate of Julius Silver, an NYU alumnus who served as chairman of the executive committee of Polaroid.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a Congressional act of incorporation signed by President Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government in any matter of science or technology.
Additional information about the Academy and its members is available at http://www.nasonline.org.