Eight Brown faculty members were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year alongside 240 other individuals, the Academy announced on April 23.
The Academy, which was founded in 1780, honors interdisciplinary scholars who are innovative leaders in their fields. Every year, the Academy elects new members who will engage in “cross-disciplinary efforts to produce reflective, independent and pragmatic studies that inform public policy and advance the public good,” according to its website.
Click here to jump to the list of elected Brown academics.
This year, the eight Brown faculty members come from a wide range of departments and schools within the University.
“For me, it’s such an honor to stand alongside so many of my cherished senior colleagues, and humbling to reflect on the long list of scholars whose ranks I’ll be joining,” wrote Kim Cobb, director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, in an email to The Herald.
Cobb — who is also a professor of environment and society and Earth, environmental and planetary science — studies ways to “leverage science for solutions” on environmental and climate-related challenges, she wrote.
Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer wrote in an email to The Herald that she was “happy, humbled and grateful” to be elected.
As a seismologist, Fischer studies the structure and properties of Earth’s interior through the seismic waves produced from earthquakes. One of Fischer’s key research interests is how the strength of rocks in the planet’s mantle give insight into climate change, as the rocks’ strength “controls how the solid Earth rebounds in response to the melting ice sheets, which in turn impacts changes in sea-level,” she explained.
For Christine Janis, professor emerita of ecology and evolutionary biology, her selection comes after her active tenure at Brown, during which she studied fossils to investigate mammal evolution over the past 25 million years. One of her findings illustrated that an extinct subfamily of giant kangaroos likely walked bipedally rather than hopped.
Now an honorary professor at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, she has continued to research the “functional morphology and likely behaviour” of extinct mammals through the lens of past environmental change, she wrote in an email to The Herald.
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Engineering George Karniadakis, who has been at Brown for over 30 years, uses physics-informed machine learning to model physical and biological systems.
Also an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, Karniadakis has investigated research topics such as “digital twin” technology that can model real-life biological processes. To understand the severity of blood clots and aneurysms, Karniadakis has used digital twins to simulate blood flow.
Kwame Dawes, professor of literary arts, wrote that his election to the Academy was a “high point” in his academic career in the United States.
Named as Jamaica’s fourth poet laureate this past year, Dawes has written dozens of books of poetry based largely on African culture in Ghana, his home country, and Jamaica, where he grew up. In 2012, he also founded the African Poetry Book Fund, which advances an “interest in the poetic arts of Africa,” according to its website.
John Diamond, professor of sociology and education policy, wrote to The Herald that he was “honored and humbled” to be elected.
“It led me to reflect on my journey in academia and think about all of the people who helped me reach this point with deep gratitude,” he added.
A sociologist focused on race and education, Diamond studies “how educational leadership, policies and practices operate through school organizations to shape students’ educational opportunities and outcomes,” he wrote.
Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the School of Public Health, wrote that she is especially honored to share this distinction with a group that includes not only U.S. and world leaders but also someone closer to home: her late mentor, D.A. Henderson.
“Like many others who had the privilege of working with him, much of (my) work is guided by the question of ‘What would D.A. do?’” added Nuzzo, who is also a professor of epidemiology.
As an epidemiologist, Nuzzo advises national governments on pandemic preparedness and response efforts and addresses other public health emergencies that threaten human health and global prosperity, she wrote.
Dean of Brown’s School of Public Health Ashish Jha expressed pride in being recognized alongside his colleagues, including Nuzzo. After serving as the White House COVID-19 response coordinator during the Biden administration, Jha now researches pandemic preparedness and response and biosecurity as a professor of health services, policy and practice.
“When we have been successful (in public health), it has been as the result of committed and critical analysis of both problems and potential solutions using data and evidence,” wrote Jha, who is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
“This has been the approach for the Academy for almost 250 years and I look forward to engaging with fellow members to help improve the lives of people in our country and around the world,” he added.
The Brown faculty members elected to the Academy this year are as follows:
Kim Cobb, director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and professor of environment and society and Earth, environmental and planetary science
Kwame Dawes, professor of literary arts
John Diamond, professor of sociology and education policy
Karen Fischer, professor of geological sciences
Christine Janis, professor emerita of ecology and evolutionary biology
Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health and professor of health services, policy and practice
George Karniadakis, professor of applied mathematics and engineering
Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the School of Public Health and professor of epidemiology
Jonathan Kim is a senior staff writer covering Science and Research. He is a second-year student from Culver City, California planning to study Public Health or Health and Human Biology. In his free time, you can find him going for a run, working on the NYT crossword or following the Dodgers.
