‘Vigil’ by acclaimed author George Saunders kicks off the new Campus Reading Program
May 13, 2026
Two members of the Northwestern University faculty have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
Dr. Joseph T. Bass and Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy are among the 252 members elected in 2026. They are recognized for their excellence and commitment to uphold the Academy’s mission of engaging with professions across different perspectives.
“We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence — this is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Laurie L. Patton, president of the Academy.
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and others, the Academy was founded on ideals that celebrate the life of the mind, the importance of knowledge and the belief that the arts and sciences are “necessary to the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.”
Northwestern’s newest members are:
Dr. Joseph T. Bass
Dr. Joseph Bass is the Charles F. Kettering Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism and director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolism at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
His laboratory investigates how circadian clocks coordinate metabolic processes across tissues, with implications for obesity, diabetes, sleep loss, aging and cardiometabolic disease.
Bass and his colleagues were among the first to demonstrate that mutations in core clock genes can cause obesity, insulin dysfunction and metabolic syndrome, establishing circadian regulation as a central regulator of energy balance. His work has advanced the understanding of how meal timing, nutrient composition and sleep-wake cycles interact with molecular clocks to influence metabolic health.
In 2025, Bass was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. He also received the Endocrine Society’s 2023 Roy O. Greep Award for Outstanding Research.
“I am deeply appreciative of the honor of election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the many trainees, colleagues, friends and mentors here at Northwestern without whom this recognition would not have been achieved,” Bass said. “As a musician in my earliest years of education, I am especially mindful of the bridge that the Academy has long created between the arts, humanities and sciences, a unity that to me is the strongest link to creativity and the joy of learning.”
Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy
Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy is dean of Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy and the Carlos Montezuma Professor of Education and Social Policy.
Brayboy is Northwestern’s first Native American dean and a citizen of the Lumbee tribe. He studies how Indigenous people learn, teach and see themselves within larger systems of power.
His most influential scholarship is Tribal Critical Race Theory or TribalCrit, a groundbreaking framework he developed in 2005 that looks at how race, power and indigenous tribal sovereignty intersect.
Brayboy received the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education in 2023 for a lifetime of work shaping the educational anthropology field, K-12 schools and higher education.
A member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association — where he was elected to the Council and Executive Board in 2024 —Brayboy is the author of more than 110 scholarly documents. This includes 10 edited or authored volumes in addition to articles, book chapters and policy briefs for the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.
He coauthored the study “Ethnographic Methods: Training norms and practices and the future of American anthropology,” which was the most-read article of 2024 in American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association.
“I’m truly honored to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” Brayboy said. “This recognition belongs as much to the brilliant students and colleagues. I've been lucky enough to learn from and work alongside throughout my career. It affirms something I’ve always believed: that curiosity, careful listening, and the freedom to explore what matters to you is its own reward — and the foundation of everything universities exist to do.”
