CITA faculty member Norman Murray elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
University of Toronto professor and CITA
faculty member Norman Murray has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences during the Academy’s 162nd Annual Meeting. On April 29, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 120 members and 30 international members. The new members will be formally inducted at the 2026 NAS Annual Meeting.
Members are elected to the NAS in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive. The NAS is a private, nonprofit institution that was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,700 members and 500 international members, of which approximately 200 have received Nobel prizes.
In reaction to the news, Prof. Murray said: “I am honoured to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. This recognition by my fellow scientists is deeply gratifying. I am very aware that any success I have had reflects the efforts of many people –my mentors, my family, and the talented students and postdoctoral fellows I’ve worked with at CITA and the University of Toronto. My election to the Academy honours all of them. I especially thank Peter Goldreich, Scott Tremaine, Dick Bond, and Valerie Murray. I hope that I can inspire my current and future students to work hard and think deeply in pursuit of their goals.”
CITA graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and long-time CITA faculty are excited by the news of this succession of prestigious honours for Professor Murray.
CITA Director Shantanu Basu commented, “We are proud of Norm’s remarkable career at CITA, where he has made significant contributions to astrophysics while inspiring and mentoring generations of astrophysicists with his positive approach and forward vision”.
Doga Tolgay, one of Murray’s graduate students, shares that “Prof. Murray is an extremely inspiring mentor and teacher, who not only explains complex physical phenomena, but helps his students develop their analytical intuition. Unlike most astrophysicists, who have a narrow area of expertise, Murray works simultaneously on many, and very diverse, astrophysical projects with remarkable ease and depth of knowledge.”
This most prestigious honour adds to two that Professor Murray has received in 2025. On April 23, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his significant contribution to Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Earth Sciences. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences honours excellence and convenes leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas and address issues of global importance.
Earlier this year Professor Murray was also named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for his “seminal contributions to our theories of chaos in the solar system, including planet formation and evolution; and for pioneering new methods for studying the physics of black hole accretion and the effects of stars and supermassive black holes on galaxy formation.”
Murray is a long-standing faculty member at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. His election to the National Academy of Science (US), the 2025 AAAS Member, and 2025 AAS Fellow distinctions are added to a long list of honours including the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics in 2022, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
In addition to his numerous distinctions and fundamental contributions to the field of Astrophysics, Professor Murray has worked with and mentored more than 50 postdoctoral fellows and a great number of graduate students. Many of his former students are now leaders of the astrophysics field.
Contact:
Lyuba Encheva
Communications and Events, CITA
Email: lyuba@cita.utoronto.ca