Departmental News

Posted:  Apr 29, 2024 - 01:00pm

Congratulations to Dr. Mala Htun on her election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences! Established in 1780, the academy elected their first cohort in 1781. Dr. Htun joins the ranks of a variety of inspiring and accomplished artists, scholars, and scientists. Fellow 2024 inductees include George Clooney and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.

“We honor these artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors for their accomplishments and for the curiosity, creativity, and courage required to reach new heights,” said David Oxtoby, President of the Academy. “We invite these exceptional individuals to join in the Academy’s work to address serious challenges and advance the common good.”

The new class joins Academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin (elected 1781) and Alexander Hamilton (1791) in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson (1864), Maria Mitchell (1848), and Charles Darwin (1874) in the nineteenth; Albert Einstein (1924), Robert Frost (1931), Margaret Mead (1948), Milton Friedman (1959), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966), and Jacques Derrida (1985) in the twentieth; and, in this century, Madeleine K. Albright (2001), Antonin Scalia (2003), Jennifer Doudna (2003), John Legend (2017), David W. Miliband (2018), Anna Deavere Smith (2019), Salman Rushdie (2022), and Xuedong Huang (2023).

UNM News: https://news.unm.edu/news/unm-professor-elected-to-american-academy-of-arts-sciences

Academy of Arts & Sciences Press Release: https://www.amacad.org/news/2024-member-announcement