UNC-Chapel Hill Provost invested in the American Academy of Sciences and Letters

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost J. Christopher Clemens was invested as a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Lettersin recognition of intellectual excellence and courage. 

The investiture was conducted Oct. 23 in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.  

Clemens, the Jaroslav Folda Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been a member of Carolina's faculty since 1998 and provost since 2022. He leads an active research program in stellar astrophysics, exoplanetary astronomy and astronomical instrumentation. His team built the facility spectrograph for the 4.1-meter SOAR telescope in Chile, which is operated by Carolina in collaboration with national and international partners. 

Before becoming provost, Clemens served in the College of Arts and Sciences as chair of the physics and astronomy department, senior associate dean for natural sciences and associate dean for research and innovation and as director of the Institute for Convergent Science. He supported the development of Carolina's IDEAs in Action Curriculum and led efforts to establish the Program for Public Discourse. 

The academy, whose members include some of the world's most prominent historians and two Nobel laureate scientists, promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievements in the arts, sciences and learned professions. It supports learning by encouraging the exchange of ideas within academia and in society at large, sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing opportunities for the presentation of scholarship in the arts and sciences. 

The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. It encourages the fruitful exchange of ideas within academia and society at large by sponsoring occasions for scholarly interaction and providing platforms for the presentation and dissemination of scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. An independent 501(c)(3) non-partisan organization, it offers public programming, supports promising young scholars, and promotes traditional liberal arts ideals and standards of intellectual excellence. 

For more on the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, visithttps://academysciencesletters.org/