Professor Ivan Dikic, Director of the Institute of Biochemistry II at Goethe University Frankfurt, has been inducted to the venerable American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 1780, the Academy has regularly been electing new members to recognize their outstanding achievements in academia, the arts, business, philanthropy, and public affairs, in line with founders’ vision “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Academy members are world leaders and represent the most innovative thinkers in their fields. Amongst them are more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners.

“I am deeply honored 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.” Being passionate about science and education, he also took the opportunity to send a message to the next generation: “I wish to stress that science is an amazing profession where we can freely explore new ideas, enrich our creativity by curiosity, benefit society and have fun by sharing knowledge and working together with students and colleagues around the world.” Ivan Dikic is after philosopher Jürgen Habermas the second member of Goethe University to receive this great honor. He has been elected as one of 23 international honorary members this year in the field of biological sciences, acknowledging his work in deciphering the role of ubiquitination and autophagy as quality control pathways in cells.

“One of the reasons to honor 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. 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 induction ceremony took place from 11th to 13th October in Cambridge, MA (USA).