Dr. Maria I. New, the Harold and Percy Uris Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Cornell University Medical College, and pediatrician-in-chief at The New York Hospital, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

New was among 60 new members elected on April 30 to the NAS, one of the nation's highest scientific honors. The NAS, established in 1863, is a private group of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It may be called upon to act as official adviser to the federal government in matters of science or technology.

New earned a B.A. from Cornell and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her house staff training and postgraduate work has been at Cornell. She has been chair of the Department of Pediatrics since 1980. Her research has centered on the genetics of steroid metabolism and hormonal hypertension.

Former president of The Endocrine Society and a member of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, New has edited or co-edited 12 medical textbooks and is co-author of The Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care (Hyperion, 1995). She has written or co-written almost 500 research papers and currently is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

New is a member of the National Institutes of Health's National Advisory Research Resources Council, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Endocrine and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee, the Society for Pediatric Research, the American Pediatric Society and the Association of American Physicians.

She has received numerous honors, including the Robert H. Williams Distinguished Leadership Award, the Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Clinical Investigator Award from the American Endocrine Society, the University of Pennsylvania Distinguished Graduate Award and the 1996 Dale Medal, the highest award given by the British Endocrine Society.