UA Professor Emeritus Elected To National Academy Of Sciences

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama on Tuesday announced that Professor Emeritus William Dressler has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

Becoming a member of the National Academy of Sciences is one of the most prestigious honors in science, with Dressler becoming one of 120 new members and 23 international members. The was first established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

Dressler is the first professor and member of the UA faculty to be elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

UA says Dressler retired in 2020 as a professor of anthropology after 42 years at The Capstone, where he was a tenured professor in the College of Community Health Sciences and the School of Social Work.

“I was stunned,” Dressler said in a statement. “I never once thought my work would lead to a National Academy membership one day. It’s an independent evaluation of the importance of the work, and a venerable institution saying, ‘Yes, this matters.’ I am grateful for that recognition.”

UA explained that Dressler’s work defined and enabled objective study into the influence of cultural and societal expectations on individual health, with Dressler coining the term “cultural consonance” to describe the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in cultural models.

“The concept of culture is a tough one because getting ahold of it, wrestling with it and getting it to work for you in research has been difficult, and my having been able to do that has enabled people in other areas outside anthropology to add to their own toolkit when studying behavioral health and society,” Dressler said.

Dressler will be inducted at the 2024 NAS Annual Meeting.

“My experience at The University of Alabama was if you do your work — keep your head down and work hard — you get the support you need," Dressler said. "UA was good to me ... My work would not be what it is without my students."

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com