2 USC educators chosen for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

USC faculty members Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and Anna Krylov have been chosen for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Established in 1780 by more than 60 “scholar-patriots,” including John Hancock and John Adams, the academy celebrates intellectual distinction and encourages interdisciplinary cooperation.

The academy’s mission is to “nurture every art and science that promotes the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous populace.”

Immordino-Yang and Krylov join a distinguished assembly of renowned honorees. Previous members of the academy include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington; other illustrious members have included Madeleine Albright, Martha Graham, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Mead, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Colin Powell.

This year’s inductees also comprise novelist Amy Tan, cancer geneticist Kenneth Offit, and actor Danny Glover.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

Immordino-Yang is a professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience and the founding director of USC’s Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education.

“Being elected to the academy is a humbling and profoundly significant privilege,” Immordino-Yang stated. “It highlights the importance of utilizing science to enhance our perceptions of learning and development — not merely as cognitive endeavors, but as deeply emotional, social, and cultural experiences. I am thankful to my colleagues, students, and the communities we collaborate with for co-creating and advancing this work together.”

Globally acknowledged for her groundbreaking research at the nexus of neuroscience, human development, and education, Immordino-Yang has made impactful advancements in comprehending how emotion, social experience, and culture influence brain development and learning. Her contributions have shaped educational policy, curriculum, and teacher training worldwide.

Immordino-Yang is exploring how adolescents derive meaning from their environment — referred to as “transcendent thinking” — and investigating how secondary educators foster and support this kind of developmental learning.

“Mary Helen’s selection to the academy is a compelling recognition of the influence her work is exerting on our approach to educating young individuals. She is aiding in transforming our grasp of what adolescents require to engage deeply and flourish fully, and how educational institutions and systems must transform to cater to those needs,” remarked Dean Pedro Noguera of the USC Rossier School of Education, where Immordino-Yang is a professor of education and holds the Fahmy and Donna Attallah Chair in Humanistic Psychology. She is also a professor of psychology.
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and neuroscience at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and serves as a faculty member in the USC Brain and Creativity Institute.

Discover more on the USC Rossier site.

Anna Krylov

Krylov holds the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences and is a chemistry professor at USC Dornsife. Her research encompasses various domains, including bioimaging, solar energy, quantum information science, and spectroscopy. Her membership in the academy underscores her outstanding contributions to theoretical and computational chemistry, particularly in deciphering molecular behavior at the quantum level.

At USC Dornsife, she heads the iOpenShell lab, where her group formulates computational techniques to investigate molecules, especially those that are electronically excited or possess unpaired electrons, referred to as radicals. Radicals play a significant role in numerous chemical and biological processes, such as combustion, solar energy transformation, and DNA repair.

Her research is continually pushing the boundaries of science. “Over the last ten years, we have tackled a challenging issue — establishing a cohesive theoretical framework for bound and unbound electrons,” Krylov stated. Bound electrons are confined within atoms or molecules, while unbound electrons have sufficient energy to exist independently.

“We have crafted many-body methods for continuum states (electronic resonances), which we are now applying to critical phenomena. Furthermore, we are on the brink of introducing innovative tools for addressing free electrons with high precision.”

Krylov’s passion for chemistry emerged from her childhood intrigue with “flames and explosions,” she recalled: “When I discovered that you could create a significant explosion with the correct combination of chemicals — that was the moment for me.”

Aside from her induction into the academy, Krylov has garnered various accolades throughout her career, including the Barry Prize, the Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy & Dynamics, and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. She is a distinguished member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, Academia Europaea, and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

Discover more on the USC Dornsife site.