Margaret G. Kidwell, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department head, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences created by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to guide public action in science.

Kidwell is the only female academy member from Arizona. She is among 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from eight countries elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

As an evolutionary geneticist, she is known for her studies of mobile genetic elements, bits of DNA passing form one species to another.

She joined the UA in 1985 and became head of the Ecology and Evolutionary Department in 1992.