Céline R. Gounder, MD, ScM, and Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, two innovators at NYU Langone, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in their field.

Dr. Gounder and Dr. Montgomery joined a 2023 class of 90 regular members and 10 international members, bringing the academy’s total membership to 2,400 since its establishment in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine.

Céline R. Gounder, MD, ScM, clinical associate professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Clinical Innovation and Infectious Diseases and Immunology, is a senior fellow and editor at large for public health at KFF Health News and a medical contributor at CBS News. She was a member of the COVID-19 Advisory Board’s transition team to then president-elect Joe Biden. She holds a medical degree from the University of Washington and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In a statement, the academy recognized her “for being one of the world’s leading experts in communication about science, medicine, and public health. She has won awards for coverage of health inequities and the COVID, Ebola, Zika, opioid, gun-violence, and disinformation epidemics.”

Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, is the H. Leon Pachter, MD, Professor of Surgery, chair of the Department of Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. A renowned transplant surgeon and innovator in the field, he performed the first genetically engineered pig kidney transplant into a human on September 25, 2021. He most recently led the Transplant Institute’s fifth xenotransplantation study in summer 2023, which was a two-month observation of a pig kidney transplanted into a human body. He received his medical degree from the University of Rochester, New York, and holds a doctorate in molecular immunology from the University of Oxford.

The academy recognized him “for significant contributions to the field of transplantation. He led the team that performed the first successful genetically edited pig-to-human kidney xenotransplant. He invented the type of ‘kidney swap’ that is responsible for over 1,000 kidney transplants a year.”

The academy addresses critical issues in health, science, medicine, and related policy and inspires positive actions across sectors. It works alongside the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public understanding of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). With their election, new members make a commitment to volunteer their service in National Academies activities.

Each new member is elected by current members through a process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, healthcare, and public health.

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