Honolulu ARCS member Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai has joined the Carnegie Institution for Sciences as inaugural director of a newly created research division focusing on life and environmental sciences. The division, which includes the Department of Embryology in Baltimore and Departments of Global Ecology and Plant Biology in Stanford, will deploy an integrated, molecular-to-global approach to tackling the challenges of sustainability, resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.

A pioneering microbiome researcher and former director of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's Pacific Biosciences Research Center, Margaret is a Guggenheim Fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Academy of Microbiology. She joined the Honolulu Chapter after being named its 2019 ARCS Scientist of the Year.

Read the Carnegie announcement describing Margaret's new role and the UH news release reviewing her past accomplishments. She has applied for a non-compensated emeritus UH appointment so she can continue to write grants with researchers at UH Mānoa, which, she says, is viewed as a major microbiome research center.