Continuing its tradition of welcoming new members since 1781, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced its newest members on April 24. The 250 members elected in 2024 are being recognized for their excellence and invited to uphold the Academy’s mission of engaging across disciplines and divides. The list of newly elected members was presented by David W. Oxtoby, President of the Academy, and Chair of the Board Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. We are delighted to learn that Professor Nenad Ban, a distinguished Croatian scientist, molecular biologist, and a member of the International Science Council of the University of Rijeka, is also amnog the new members, elected in the class of Biological Sciences.
“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. “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.”
Being a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is a great achievement in one’s carreer, especially since the Academy, founded in 1780 in the midst of the revolution, gathers only prominent individuals from the US and other countries. This year’s newly elected members include Apple CEO Tim Cook, actor George Clooney, General Motors CEO Mary T. Barra and many others, while Croatian scientists Ivan Đikić and Miroslav Radman joined the Academy in previous years.
Nenad Ban was appointed as a professor of structural molecular biology at ETH Zurich, following his postdoctoral studies at Yale in the group of Thomas Steitz. He is a member of the American National Academy of Sciences, European Molecular Biology Organization, the German Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including the Heinrich Wieland Prize, the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, and the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine
Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 2024.
We at the University of Rijeka extend sincere congratulations to Professor Ban for this achievement, wishing him lots of success and other well-deserved praises!