Two professors named to A & S Academy

Two UW faculty members have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Creative Writing Professor Heather McHugh and Pharmacology Professor and Chair William Catterall are among 154 Americans and 15 foreign nationals to be chosen in recognition of their distinguished contributions to science, scholarship, public affairs and the arts.

McHugh is a poet, translator and essayist whose work has garnered critical praise. Her book, Hinge and Sign: Poems 1968-1993 was a National Book Award finalist and New York Times “Best Book” of 1994. She also is a one-time Guggenheim Fellow and Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Writers Award Winner. Last year, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Just a few weeks ago, McHugh was awarded the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry - an award that goes to a “notable and accomplished presence in American literature who has fulfilled his or her exceptional early promise.” McHugh has been the Milliman Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the UW since 1984.

Catterall’s research deals with the molecules on the surface of cells that generate and modulate electrical signals. He also studies how chemical messengers such as neurotransmitters, hormones and drugs can modulate electrical signals over longer time periods. This modulation of signals is thought to be responsible for critical aspects of learning, memory, mood and physiological control.

In 1980, Catterall became the first to identify the protein subunits of sodium channels, the molecules that start and transmit electrical signals in the brain. Four years later he identified the subunits of the calcium channel, and in 1988 he identified the inactivation gate of the sodium channel, which closes the sodium channel about 1 millisecond after it opens. Catterall’s work is leading to a better understanding of, and improved treatments for, pain, epilepsy and rhythm disorders of the heart. Also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, he earned a doctorate in physiological chemistry in 1972 from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded during the American Revolution to provide a forum for a select group of scholars, members of the learned professions and government and business leaders to work together on behalf of the democratic interests of the republic. Today the academy is a learned society with a dual function - to elect to membership men and women of exceptional achievement and to conduct a varied program of projects and studies responsive to the needs and problems of society. ¶