Two Berkeley Lab Scientists Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering has named two scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to this year’s class of 130 new members and 28 international members.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions in engineering practice, research, or education, as well as in pioneering new and developing fields of technology, major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing innovative approaches to engineering education.

Both of the 2026 members hold joint affiliations with UC Berkeley.

Jennifer Doudna, a faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division, founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute, and a professor at UC Berkeley, was elected for developing widely adopted DNA and RNA editing methods based on CRISPR-Cas9.

Doudna joined Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley in 2002 to pursue research on RNA molecules and their different activities in cells. In 2008, Doudna first investigated CRISPR arrays — repeated nucleotide sequences found in bacterial genomes — and the associated Cas1 protein through a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program award. This foundational research helped unravel how a component of the bacterial immune system helps to nullify future threats by snipping invasive DNA and storing small segments to help identify viruses. In a subsequent collaboration with Emmanuel Charpentier, Dounda and her colleagues determined how to modify the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which cuts the genomes of invading viruses, to precisely edit genetic code in any organism. Their groundbreaking technique was published in 2012, and was later recognized with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Doudna received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, in 2025. She was previously elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

Nitash Balsara, a faculty senior scientist in the Materials Science Division and professor of chemical engineering at UC Berkeley, was elected for his work “elucidating the relationship between mechanical and electrical properties in block copolymer electrolytes to develop solid electrolytes for rechargeable batteries.”

Balsara is an expert in polymer science whose work helps improve the performance and safety of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. His group designs, synthesizes, and tests materials for use in batteries and uses advanced characterization methods to understand how the devices work at the molecular level. They were the first to capture real-time 3D images of changes in the state of charge at the particle level inside a lithium-ion battery after it had been charged, providing insight into how to prevent dangerous thermal runaway when fast-charging powerful batteries. He has led Berkeley Lab’s Soft Matter Electron Microscopy Program for over 16 years, pioneering new approaches to visualize ion transport and structure in polymer electrolytes, and served as a principal investigator in the DOE Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) throughout the center’s full ten-year lifetime.

Balsara joined Berkeley Lab in 2000 and is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Neutron Scattering Society of America. He cofounded two battery start-ups, and his work on polymer electrolytes was recognized with an R&D 100 Award. He received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Charles M.A. Stine Award for Excellence in Materials Engineering and Science, the United States Energy Secretary’s Achievement Award, and the 2026 APS Polymer Physics Prize.

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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.