Pune-based scientist elected to prestigious American Academy

City-based renowned scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar has been elected as a foreign member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) for 2011.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, established in 1780 by its founding members such as Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, has elected only six Indians so far as its foreign members.  The election of Mashelkar(former Director of NCL, Pune and Director General, CSIR) this year follows industrialist Ratan Tata's election last year as a foreign member of AAAS, an official release here said.

The Academy has more than two hundred Nobel Prize winners as its fellows. The foreign members of the academy include legendary Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.