Two members of the Dartmouth faculty have been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the oldest and among the most prestigious scholarly honor societies in the United States.
The academy recognized molecular geneticist Mary Lou Guerinot, the Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences and a professor of biological sciences, and Buddhism scholar Reiko Ohnuma, Robert 1932 and Barbara Black Professor of Religion.
Guerinot and Ohnuma are among 252 leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research, and science who will be inducted into the academy at a ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., in October.
"In their distinct fields, Professor Guerinot and Professor Ohnuma exemplify the intellectual curiosity, scholarly rigor, and depth of inquiry that define Dartmouth at its best," says Provost Santiago Schnell. "Their election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is a richly deserved recognition of academic achievement at the highest level."
The author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, Guerinot studies how plants remove metals from soil—work that is creating solutions to malnutrition and to the problem of toxic metals such as arsenic in the food chain.
Among other accomplishments, Guerinot helped identify the protein responsible for iron uptake from soil and was among the first plant biologists to use synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microprobe imaging to study the distribution of trace elements such as iron, zinc, and manganese in plants. She also helped develop the field of ionomics, which uses genomics and bioinformatics to study the functional connections in organisms between genes, proteins, and minerals and identify genes controlling the mineral composition of food crops.
Guerinot is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has served on its governance council since 2023. She is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Plant Biologists and a nonresident fellow at the Salk Institute. She earned her BS in biology from Cornell University and her PhD from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"It is a tremendous honor, one that I share with the many talented undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and scientists I have had the privilege to work with over the years," says Guerinot. "To be included among the extraordinary individuals who have shaped our world is both humbling and exciting. I look forward to contributing to the work of the academy."
Ohnuma's research uses Sanskrit and Pali narrative literature to explore themes of the body, motherhood, self-sacrifice, and human and animal nature in the Buddhist traditions of South Asia.
She is the author of three books, including, most recently, Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination, published in 2017, which shows how premodern Buddhist literature uses nonhuman creatures to understand the nature of humanity.
Her 2012 book, Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism, looks at Buddhist literary depictions of motherhood and their relationship to the lived experience of mothers in premodern India. Head, Eyes, Flesh, Blood: Giving Away the Body in Indian Buddhist Literature, published in 2007, looks at the cultural impact of narratives of the Buddha's self-sacrifice.
Ohnuma earned her BA from the University of California at Berkeley and went on to earn her MA and PhD from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
"I am deeply honored and, frankly, a bit shocked to be receiving this enormous honor," says Ohnuma. "I'm also profoundly grateful to Dartmouth for providing the ideal environment (over the last 27 years) for pursuing the work that I've done—in the form of institutional resources, wonderful colleagues, and bright and inquisitive students. I never could have achieved this honor if I were not at Dartmouth."
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780, during the American Revolution, and President George Washington was among its first inductees. Its membership has included the likes of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Mead, Antonin Scalia, and Anna Deavere Smith.
Announcing the 2026 cohort, Academy President Laurie Patton called their election "a fitting commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary."
"We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence," Patton said.
Thirty-six Dartmouth faculty members have been previously elected to the academy, including President Sian Leah Beilock in 2024.
Other recent Dartmouth inductees include Interim Dean of the Faculty and John Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences John Carey, Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance Kenneth French, President Emeritus Philip J. Hanlon '77, Professor of Biological Sciences Mark McPeek, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor and Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan, Tuck School of Business Dean Matthew Slaughter, and Professor of Economics Heidi Williams '03. Trustee Shonda Rhimes '91 was elected to the academy in 2023.