Four University professors were elected last month to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The esteemed learning society “honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor.”
The electees — Paul Braun, professor in Engineering, Antoinette Burton, professor in LAS, Aida El-Khadra, professor in Engineering and Jonathan Sweedler, professor in LAS — join a network of over 6,000 members and 700 international honorary members.
Member organization includes five classes that cover all intellectual fields. Braun, El-Khadra and Sweedler fall into Class I: Mathematical and Physical Sciences, with Burton in Class IV: Humanities and Arts.
Braun, the director of the Materials Research Laboratory, leads research teams to create new materials. His current focus centers around creating more efficient batteries and optical materials that control “the flow of light.”
El-Khadra has worked at the University since 1995 as a professor in the physics department, focusing on the development of lattice field theory. She has received numerous awards in this field and is the chair of the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative.
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Sweedler wrote in an email statement to The Daily Illini that his research “combines analytical chemistry and neuroscience; more specifically, we create new chemical measurement technologies to study unusual chemical pathways in the brain.”
Additionally, Sweedler is the James R. Eiszner Family Endowed Chair in Chemistry and the principal investigator for the Neuroproteomics & Neurometabolomics Center.
Burton directs the Humanities Research Institute, and her research focuses on the 19th- and 20th-century British Empire. She has written works like “An ABC of Queen Victoria’s Empire” and “Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times.”
Nominations for election to the Academy require a nominator and a co-nominator who are both current members. At least one of them needs to be external from the University. Burton sees the nomination process as a way to uplift future scholars.
“The honor is tremendous, and I am just learning about the opportunities for service,” Burton wrote in an email statement to The DI. “I’m eager to help other scholars get elected and I’m especially interested in further diversifying ranks of AAAS members.”
Not only an honors society, the Academy also functions as an independent research center. It produces publications and coordinates events to “inform public policy and advance the public good.”
“It’s a chance to meet other people who have … accomplished a lot in their careers,” Braun said. “What’s fun about the Academy is, because it’s arts and sciences, you’re going to run into people who are not just the ones you’d run into in your daily life.”
The Academy was chartered by the Massachusetts legislature in 1780, with John Adams and John Hancock among its founders. Its first member class in the following year included George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
Nearly 100 other members of the Academy are affiliated with the University, both past and present. This includes former UI System president Stanley O. Ikenberry, who died early last month.
Among the 2025 member class of nearly 250, other notable figures include CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, founder of World Central Kitchen José Andrés, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Despite the high prestige of election into the Academy, Braun stressed the contributions of his research team and students.
“This is the highest award I have received,” Braun said. “It’s great recognition of what you’ve been doing over your career. I think it also reflects the work of all the students … they’re the ones that have done the work.”
The four professors have exchanged congratulatory emails, according to Braun and Sweedler.
The induction ceremony for their member class will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October. According to Burton, the colleges of LAS and Engineering are planning an on-campus celebration as well.
“I have already made my plans for the induction ceremony in Boston — people say it’s an amazing experience and I am looking forward to meeting the others who’ve been elected to the Class of 2025,” Burton wrote.
