Two from Johns Hopkins elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Two Johns Hopkins professors—Diane Edmund Griffin, University Distinguished Service Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Du Yun, Professor of Composition at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University—have been elected to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Image caption: From left, Diane Griffin and Du Yun

Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, and others, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest learned societies in the U.S. Membership in the academy is considered a career honor and recognizes individuals for their excellence and leadership, their distinction in working across disciplines, and their achievements in advancing the common good.

Yun and Griffin are among 250 individuals selected for membership this year. Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 2024, with this year's class including actor and philanthropist George Clooney, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and author Jhumpa Lahiri.

Diane Griffin, selected in the microbiology and immunology category, teaches in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School. She has a joint appointment at the School of Medicine, where she serves as professor of infectious diseases and of neurology. Her research focuses on how viruses cause disease and how immunity leads to both recovery and protection from reinfection. Her team is currently investigating how measles virus infection suppresses the immune system. She was also the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and past president of the American Society for Virology, the Association of Medical School Microbiology Chairs and the American Society for Microbiology.

Du Yun, selected in the performing arts category, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, activist, and curator for new music. Her second opera, Angel's Bone, won a Pulitzer Prize for music in 2017; in 2018 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow; and in 2019 she was nominated for a Grammy Award in Best Classical Composition. She has been a featured composer at several prestigious venues, including the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a curator and activist for new music and art, she was a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); served as the Artistic Director of MATA Festival (2014-2018); conceived the Pan Asia Sounding Festival (inaugurated at National Sawdust); and founded an ongoing multi-year FutureTradition Initiative in China where she works with folk musicians from around the world in order to champion more cross-regional collaborations.