Neil W. Ashcroft, the Horace White Professor in Physics at Cornell University, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, among the nation's highest scientific honors.

He was one of 60 new members recognized for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. It brings to 43 the number of Cornell former or current faculty who are members of the National Academy of Sciences.

"I am honored and delighted to be recognized by the National Academy of Sciences," Ashcroft said. "But I also see this as a recognition of the research environment in which I have been privileged to work over the years. Specifically I would cite Cornell's great interdisciplinary research centers, my outstanding colleagues both in the Department of Physics and the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, and especially a host of excellent graduate students and post-doctoral associates."

Ashcroft has been at Cornell since 1965, when he started as a research associate. He became assistant professor of physics the following year, associate professor of physics in 1969 and professor of physics in 1975. He was named the Horace White Professor in Physics in 1990.

His expertise is in theoretical condensed matter physics, specifically in many-particle systems as they occur in condensed matter. Among his research interests is metallic hydrogen and matter under extreme conditions, such as might be found in the interiors of the giant planets, like Jupiter.

Associated with Cornell's Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Ashcroft also has been deputy director of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source since 1990.

Ashcroft earned a bachelor of science degree (1958) and master of science degree (1960), both from the University of New Zealand, and a doctorate (1964) from Cambridge University. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, and is an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

He serves on the editorial boards of The Physical Review, The Journal of Physics (UK), and the Australian Journal of Physics.