in 1988 goldstein received a national medal of science in the field of molecular genetics, and in 2003 goldstein and brown won the albany medical center prize in medicine and biomedical research in recognition for their further work in understanding cholesterol and also the discovery of an insulin-sensitive regulator, which potentially could be used to develop treatments for diabetes mellitus. goldstein is a member of the u.s. national academy of sciences and the institute of medicine and he was elected a foreign member of the royal society (formemrs) in 1991.