On October 20, during its annual meeting, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) announced the election of 100 new members, including MIT faculty members Dina Katabi and Facundo Batista, along with three additional alumni from MIT. This prestigious honor recognizes individuals who have shown outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service in the fields of health and medicine.
Facundo Batista serves as the associate director and scientific director of the Ragon Institute, a collaboration among Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard. He has been acknowledged for his significant contributions to understanding the biology of antibody-producing B cells, which plays a crucial role in the body”s immune response to infectious diseases. His recent research efforts have focused on advancing preclinical vaccine development for critical global health issues such as HIV, malaria, and influenza. Batista earned his PhD from the International School of Advanced Studies and established his laboratory in 2002 at the Francis Crick Institute while also holding a professorship at Imperial College London. In 2016, he joined the Ragon Institute to leverage his expertise in B cells and antibody responses for vaccine development, particularly for SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. He has been inducted as a fellow or member of several prestigious organizations, including the U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences and the American Academy of Microbiology, and he serves as chief editor of The EMBO Journal.
Dina Katabi, who holds the Thuan (1990) and Nicole Pham Professor title in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, conducts research that encompasses digital health, wireless sensing, mobile computing, machine learning, and computer vision. Her innovations include developing efficient communication protocols for the internet, advanced contactless biosensors, and new AI models that interpret physiological signals. The NAM recognized her for pioneering digital health technologies that facilitate non-invasive, off-body remote health monitoring using AI and wireless signals. This technology has led to the creation of digital biomarkers for tracking the progression and detection of Parkinson”s disease, significantly enhancing clinical trial measures of disease trajectory and treatment response. Katabi is the director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing and leads the Networks at MIT Research Group within the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). She obtained her bachelor”s degree from the University of Damascus and both her master”s and PhD in computer science from MIT. Katabi is also a MacArthur Fellow and a member of esteemed organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Other MIT alumni elected to the NAM for 2025 include Christopher S. Chen, a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology; Michael E. Matheny, also an alumnus of the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology; and Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum, who holds degrees from the Department of Physics and the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
The National Academy of Medicine, originally established as the Institute of Medicine in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy, inspiring positive actions across various sectors. NAM President Victor J. Dzau expressed, “I am deeply honored to welcome these extraordinary health and medicine leaders and researchers into the National Academy of Medicine. Their demonstrated excellence in tackling public health challenges, leading major discoveries, improving health care, advancing health policy, and addressing health equity will critically strengthen our collective ability to tackle the most pressing health challenges of our time.”
