Three MIT professors are among the 76 new members of the National Academy of Engineering.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive. Academy membership honors those who have made "important contributions to engineering theory and practice," and those who have demonstrated accomplishment in "pioneering new fields of engineering, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."
MIT's new members (all affiliated with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory or CSAIL) are:
Rodney A. Brooks, CSAIL director and the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science, for "contributions to the foundations and applications of robotics, including the establishment of consumer and hazardous environment robotics industries."
Frank T. Leighton (Ph.D. 1981), professor of applied mathematics, "for contributions to the design of networks and circuits and for technology for web content delivery."
Victor W. Zue (Sc.D. 1976), CSAIL co-director and a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, for "advances in the understanding of acoustic phonetics and systems for understanding spoken language."
