Professor Tshilidzi Marwala has been honoured by the American Academy of Arts & Science by being elected as an International Honorary Member.
Johannesburg, South Africa (12 May 2022) – The American Academy of Arts & Sciences added 261 individuals worldwide to the 2022 members list and included Professor Tshilidzi Marwala from the University of Johannesburg.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences honours excellence. It convenes leaders to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and advance the public good.
For more than 240 years, the Academy has been electing and engaging exceptional individuals. This year’s election of 261 new members continues a tradition of recognising accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy, and research.
“We are celebrating a depth of achievements in a breadth of areas,” said David Oxtoby, President of the American Academy. “These individuals excel in ways that excite us and inspire us at a time when recognizing excellence, commending expertise, and working toward the common good is absolutely essential to realizing a better future.”
“The Academy was founded on the belief that the new republic should honor truly accomplished individuals and engage them in meaningful work,” said Nancy C. Andrews, Chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors. “The Academy’s dual mission continues to this day. Membership is an honor, and also an opportunity to shape ideas and influence policy in areas as diverse as the arts, democracy, education, global affairs, and science.”
Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is the Vice-Chancellor, Principal and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Johannesburg. He was appointed in 2018. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University (USA) in 1995, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 1997 and a PhD specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 2000.
The professor has published 14 books related to Artificial Intelligence, one of which has been translated into Chinese. He has authored over 300 papers and been a guest at some of the world’s most prestigious universities. He is a true academic and has a passion for educational leadership. To add to his long list of inspiring achievements, Professor Marwala was appointed as Deputy Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
It is no surprise, then, to hear he has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences under the Educational and Academic Leadership section and joins the International Honorary Members (IHM). This year, the new members include 37 International Honorary Members from 16 countries.
The new members join a distinguished group of individuals elected to the Academy before them, including Benjamin Franklin (elected 1781), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1864), Robert Frost (1931), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966), M. Temple Grandin (2016), John Legend (2017), and Sanjay Gupta (2021) – to name a few.