Dr. Jeffrey R. Holt elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Congratulations to Jeffrey R. Holt, PhD, Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, who was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2025. 

The NAS, established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, is a private, nonprofit institution that provides independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. Election to the NAS is considered one of the highest honors in science. Dr. Holt is one of 120 scientists nationwide elected this year in recognition of their distinguished achievements in original research. He is the first member of the Harvard Medical School Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery ever elected to this prestigious society, which currently includes 2,662 active U.S. members.

Dr. Holt serves as one of two principal investigators of the Holt/Géléoc Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on the function and dysfunction of the inner ear, with the goal of understanding how external stimuli, such as sound, gravity, and head movements, are converted into electrical signals, how this information is encoded, and how it is transmitted to the brain. His lab is best known for their identification of the molecules and mechanisms of sensory transduction in inner ear hair cells. He also investigates how genetic mutations lead to hearing and balance disorders, and has developed novel therapeutic interventions for these conditions.

Dr. Holt earned his doctorate in physiology from the University of Rochester, where he conducted his thesis research on inward rectifier potassium channels in vestibular hair cells in the lab of Ruth Anne Eatock, PhD. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the laboratory of David Corey, PhD. Dr. Holt’s first faculty position was in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Virginia. In 2011, he returned to Harvard to join the Departments of Otolaryngology and Neurology in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he remains today.