Cambridge academics elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

“They are among 252 leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research, and science elected in 2026. The Cambridge academics elected are: Professor Julie Ahringer (Department of Genetics; Gurdon Institute) Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (International Honorary Member) (Department of Psychology; Emmanuel College; Newnham College) Professor Vikram S. Deshpande (International Honorary Member) (Department of Engineering; Pembroke College) Professor Hiranya Peiris (International Honorary Member) (Institute of Astronomy; Murray Edwards College) Professor Susan J. Smith (International Honorary Member) (Department of Geography; Girton College) The Academy, chartered in 1780, was established to recognise accomplished individuals and engage them in addressing the greatest challenges facing the young republic. The first members elected to the Academy include George Washington, who said – in his first annual message to Congress in 1790 – “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” “We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence – this is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the Academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public 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), Esther Duflo (2009), John Legend (2017), Anna Deavere Smith (2019), Salman Rushdie (2022), Xuedong Huang (2023), and José Andrés (2025). Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2026. Five academics from the University of Cambridge have been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions , and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms. Yes

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