Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Wolfenden is the only scientist from North Carolina among 72 new members elected to the academy this year for distinguished and continuing original research achievements.
The honor came one day following Wolfenden's appointment as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, class of 2002.
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has included among its Fellows George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill. Current membership includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners.
Wolfenden's work on enzyme mechanisms and water affinities of biological compounds is considered major influences in these areas. His research also influenced rational drug design. Findings from his laboratory helped spur development of ACE inhibitor drugs, a widely used type of medication for hypertension. Recent studies have focused on the catalytic power of enzymes, how they accelerate the rates of biochemical reactions by factors in excess of a quadrillion (10 to the 15th power).
Wolfenden earned a B.A. in chemistry from Princeton University in 1956. He took both a B.A. (1958) and M.A. (1960) in animal physiology from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1964. He joined the UNC faculty in 1970. Wolfenden currently chairs the biological division of the American Chemical Society.
Wolfenden is the 11th National Academy of Sciences member currently on th
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Contact: Leslie H. Lang
LLANG@MED.UNC.EDU
919-843-9687
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
3-May-2002