Professor Ivan Dikic, Director of the Institute of Biochemistry II, has been elected to the venerable American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Birgitta Wolff, Goethe University President, congratulated the physician and biochemist: “I am proud that following Jürgen Habermas, a second scientist from Goethe University has now been accepted to the Academy’s illustrious society.”
From more than 1,300 nominations, the Academy appoints 200 new members each year from science, the arts, business, government and public affairs – including, this year, former First Lady Michelle Obama. Dikic has been elected as one of 23 international honorary members in the field of biological sciences, within which he has been recognised in more than one section. He is being honoured for his work in deciphering the role of ubiquitination and autophagy as quality control pathways in cells.
“I am deeply honoured to join this circle of distinguished personalities,” Dikic said. “My gratitude goes to all past and present members of my lab, my mentors, and colleagues at Goethe University and to my family for their enduring support and friendship. I also wish to send a message to new generations stressing that science is an amazing profession where we can explore new ideas freely, enrich our creativity by curiosity, benefit society and have fun by sharing knowledge and working together with students and colleagues around the world.”
“One of the reasons to honour extraordinary achievement is because the pursuit of excellence is so often accompanied by disappointment and self-doubt,” said David W. Oxtoby, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1789, the Academy’s members include Benjamin Franklin (elected 1781), Charles Darwin (1874), Albert Einstein (1924), the anthropologist Margaret Mead (1948), the economist and Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman (1959), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966) and actor John Lithgow (2010).
The Academy will induct new members in a formal ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts in October.
