Chuan He Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The University of Chicago Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor Chuan He has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
The members elected in 2024 are being recognized for their excellence and have been invited to uphold the Academy’s mission of engaging across disciplines and divides.
“I am very honored. I hope our lab will continue our trajectory of innovation,” said Professor He.
In a press release announcing the selection, President of the Academy, David Oxtoby, said, “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. We invite these exceptional individuals to join in the Academy’s work to address serious challenges and advance the common good.”
Out of 250 members elected in 2024, six newly elected members are affiliates of the University of Chicago.
In addition to Professor He, they include American Linguist and Mary K. Werkman Professor, Diane Brentari; experimental particle physicist and current deputy director of Science and Technology at the Fermi Lab, Bonnie T. Fleming; Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Erik Hurst; Professor and current dean of the University of Chicago Division of the Humanities Deborah Nelson, and Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy Amir Sufi.
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).
“With the broad diversity of members elected this year, we are continuing to expand on the commitment to excellence and wide-ranging expertise established by our founders,” said Chair of the Board Goodwin Liu, who also serves as an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. “The honor of election comes with an invitation for new members to rededicate themselves to the common good by advancing the Academy’s nonpartisan, cross-disciplinary work in the arts, democracy, education, global affairs, and science.”
Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 2024.
Chuan He is the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is an expert in the field of RNA modification biology and cancer epigenetics. He was the first to champion the idea that modifications to RNA are reversible and can control gene expression.
His work is foundational to developing potential therapies that target RNA methylation effectors against human diseases such as cancer. Prof. He’s team was the first to identify eraser proteins, which can undo changes made to RNA molecules, which sparked the emergence of epitranscriptome research. Prof. He's team explained how RNA methylation functions through characterizing reader proteins—processes that known to play critical roles in many types of cancer.
A Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, He’s many honors include the 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the 2023 Tetrahedon Prize, the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year, Life Sciences Prize, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a W. M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar in Medical Research Award.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded to help a young nation face its challenges through shared purpose, knowledge, and ideas. Chartered in 1780 in the midst of revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, and others, the Academy’s membership and work have changed greatly over the centuries while remaining faithful to ideals that celebrate the life of the mind, the importance of knowledge, and the belief that the arts and sciences are “necessary to the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.”
To learn more about the Academy and its history.
https://www.amacad.org/about-academy
https://www.amacad.org/history
To learn more about members elected from 1781–2023 in an online directory.
https://www.amacad.org/directory