A US-based immunologist, with family in Salt Lake, has just been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a prestigious institution established under a charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. “Only the top scientists get elected here. Nobel winners in the US are all members of this academy. It is a great honour,” Sankar Ghosh tells The Telegraph Salt Lake from New York. “The academy inducts individuals from all fields of science so very few are elected from every department.” Sankar, whose parental home is in EC Block, is a professor and head of the microbiology and immunology department of Columbia University. His research is on the immune system and has been critical in the understanding of and treatment of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, colitis and dermatitis.