David Mangelsdorf, chairman of the department of pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, was elected Tuesday to the National Academy of Sciences.

Membership in the academy is one of the nation’s highest honors for a scientist. The academy, established in 1863, advises the federal government on scientific or technological matters.

Dr. Mangelsdorf, 49, studies how the body senses a variety of chemical signals, notably those related to fats and cholesterol. Recent research includes discovery of a cholesterol byproduct that can block estrogen’s naturally protective effects on blood vessel walls, a finding that could help explain why hormone replacement therapy does not always reduce the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women.

He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Arizona and joined UT Southwestern’s faculty in 1993.

Dr. Mangelsdorf is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a distinction bestowed on elite scientists in the U.S.

Dr. Mangelsdorf was among 72 new U.S. members and 18 foreign associates elected to the academy Tuesday. UT Southwestern now has 18 faculty members in the academy.

Three other Texas scientists were also elected to the academy. They are neurobiologist Richard Aldrich, psychologist Wilson Geisler, and evolutionary biologist David Hillis, all faculty members at the University of Texas, Austin.