Two Dietrich School professors, Jeffrey Brodsky, an Avinoff Professor of Biological Sciences in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Elizabeth Arkush a professor in the Department of Anthropology have just been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Brodsky received his bachelor’s from the University of Illinois in Biochemistry in 1985 and his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard University in 1990. He started working at Pitt in 1994, was promoted to an associate professor in 2000, and was promoted again in 2006 to a full professor and awarded the Avinoff Chair. His work currently centers around understanding how misfolded proteins are recognized and destroyed in the cell, and how those defects can be corrected using drugs and genetic approaches.
Professor Arkush earned her PhD from UCLA in 2005. Her archaeological research focuses on the Peruvian Andes and the themes of war and violence along with their connections to political authority and ideology. She started her research on Peru in 1999.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 and honors excellence from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together. Their work has helped set the direction of research and analysis in science and technology policy, global security and international affairs, social policy, education, the humanities, and the arts. The Academy has had many notable members since its inception from George Washington and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Georgia O’Keefe, Albert Einstein, and Nelson Mandela.
You can read more about the Academy and other current members here and read about the other Pitt honorees in PittWire.
