Noted author and University of Auckland Distinguished Professor receives top international scientific accolades

The University of Auckland s Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Maori Studies Dame Anne Salmond has been elected a foreign associate in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for her excellence in scientific research.
Membership in the NAS is the highest honour given to a scientist or engineer in the United States, with even fewer scientists around the world being elected as foreign associates. Professor Salmond will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 147th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
There are currently just over 350 foreign associate NAS members. Among the NAS's renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. Over 180 living Academy members have won Nobel Prizes.

Professor Salmond was also elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy last year, one of just 307 such fellows. She is the only New Zealander known to have achieved this double distinction.
With her explorations of Captain James Cook and blue-water navigation, Professor Salmond is internationally recognised for broadening the horizons of how Pacific voyaging is understood. Her recent research output includes a book in press, Aphrodite's Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti; and a new book on William Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty. She has won numerous awards for books that include Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings; Amiria, Eruera: Teachings of a Maori Elder;and Two Worlds: First Meetings between Maori and Europeans. Professor Salmond s The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas (Allen Lane 2003), won the Montana Book Award in 2004; and in that same year she received the Prime Minister s Award for Literary Achievement.
Professor Salmond s pioneering research has made a major contribution to the University s national and international profile, says Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor John Morrow. Having this world-class scholar in our midst is a source of tremendous pride for the entire community and we are thrilled that Professor Salmond s work has been recognised with this rare honour.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furthering science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Established in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences has served to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government.