Two CSE faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Professors are among only 276 nationwide to receive prestigious honor
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (04/29/2020) — Two College of Science and Engineering professors are among five faculty members at University of Minnesota Twin Cities have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honor societies.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors those making preeminent contributions to their fields and the world. Members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs. An induction ceremony is planned for October.
The two CSE faculty are among only 276 new nationwide members this year.
Laura Gagliardi is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Chemistry. She also holds a McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair. Gagliardi is a renowned theoretical and computational chemist and is internationally known for her contributions to the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems. Her research has led to paradigm-shifting thinking about chemical systems, their properties, and new materials. Her work involves the prediction and modeling of chemical phenomena by means of advanced chemical computation. Gagliardi’s research affects applications ranging from energy sustainability to nuclear waste management.
Gagliardi leads the multi-disciplinary Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center (ICDC), a Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy. She also is a leader in the Department of Chemistry's Chemical Theory Center and has served as director of the Nanoporous Materials Genome Center.
Marc M. Hirschmann is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He also is a Distinguished McKnight Professor and holds the Robert C. and Carol G. Gunn Professorship. As a renowned experimental petrologist, Hirschmann reproduces the temperatures and pressures of rocks in Earth’s interior, studying the processes of melting and chemical mass transfer. In recent years, this work has included investigations of the elements in magmas and rocks that are essential to Earth’s habitability and climate. A second focus has been the study of the early formation, evolution, and degassing of rocky planetary bodies including Earth, Mars, and the Moon.
Hirschmann has previously been awarded the Dana Medal from the Mineralogical Society of America and the N.L. Bowen Award from the Volcanology, Petrology, and Geochemistry section of the American Geophysical Union. Hirschmann was also recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the nation’s highest honors.
The other University of Minnesota faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences include:
Jeannine Cavender-Bares, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the College of Biological Sciences
Larry Jacobs, the McKnight Presidential Chair in Public Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs
Erika Lee, a Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight Professor in the College of Liberal Arts
“We congratulate these incoming members of the Academy for excelling in a broad array of fields; we want to celebrate them and learn from them,” said Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “When Academy members come together, bringing their expertise and insights to our work, they help develop new insights and potential solutions for some of the most complex challenges we face.”
The full list of 2020 academy members is available on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences website.