Two UC Davis professors are among the newest members of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Tuesday, the national academy announced the election of 72 new members, including Roy Doi, a professor of molecular biology at UC Davis. One day earlier, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced the election of 175 new fellows, including Craig Tracy, a professor in UC Davis' Department of Mathematics.

The National Academy of Sciences, at its annual meeting Tuesday, also elected 18 foreign associates. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected 20 new foreign honorary members.

Doi joined the UC Davis faculty in 1965 and became a distinguished professor in 2003. He is the 22nd Davis faculty member elected to the academy, according to the academy's Web site.

"Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in American science and engineering," former UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph Cicerone, academy president, said in a news release.

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, according to the news release. President Lincoln signed the congressional act that established the academy in 1863, with Lincoln and Congress calling on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

With this week's election, the academy now has 2,013 active members. Foreign associates, who are nonvoting members, now number 371.

Tracy joined the UC Davis faculty in 1984 and became a distinguished professor in 2003. He has served as chair of the Department of Mathematics and acting director of the Institute of Theoretical Dynamics. He is the 12th faculty member to be elected as an academy fellow, according to the academy's Web site.

"Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large," academy President Patricia Meyer Spacks said in a news release.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences Web site indicates a membership of about 4,000 American fellows and 600 foreign honorary members.

The academy describes itself as an independent policy research center that undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Today's academy research focuses on science and global security; social policy; the humanities and culture; and education.

Represented among this year's newly elected members to the Academy of Arts and Sciences are more than 60 universities, a dozen corporations, as well as museums, research institutes, media outlets and foundations.

More information: http://www.nasonline.org and http://www.amacad.org.