William Penuel, Jun Ye named newest American Academy of Arts & Sciences members
The prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences has , and they include CU Boulder affiliates William Penuel and Jun Ye.
Penuel and Ye join 250 other leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research and science elected in 2026.
The academy, chartered in 1780, was established to recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in addressing the greatest challenges facing the young republic. The first members elected to the academy include President George Washington, who said—in his first annual message to Congress in 1790, “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
“Election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is among the highest honors a scholar can receive, and this recognition speaks to CU Boulder’s longstanding strength as a center of ideas and discovery,” said Թ Justin Schwartz. "The induction of professors William Penuel and Jun Yeadds to our university’s tradition of faculty recognized among the nation’s most distinguished scholars and affirms CU Boulder’s role in advancing knowledge at the highest level.”
William Penuel
Penuel is a Distinguished Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development in the School of Education and the Institute of Cognitive Science and a faculty fellow at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at CU Boulder.
His research examines how curriculum materials, assessments and professional learning experiences can support teachers in creating equitable and engaging STEM learning environments, particularly in science. He also studies how contemplative practices and critical inquiry help educators cultivate compassionate, inclusive learning environments and schools.
A leading scholar in research‑practice partnerships, Penuel investigates how long‑term collaborations between educators and researchers can address systemic inequities related to race, gender and sexual diversity and language.
Across his research, he works in close partnership with educators and education leaders to build and understand classrooms that honor students’ experiences, broaden whose knowledge is valued and connect instruction to learners’ identities and interests. He uses a wide range of research methods, including one he developed with colleagues called design-based implementation research.
Penuel is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and an American Educational Research Association fellow. He has published two books on research-practice partnerships: “Creating Research-Practice Partnerships in Education” (co-author; Harvard Education Press) and “Connecting Research and Practice for Educational Improvement” (co-editor; Routledge). He co-edited “The Foundational Handbook on Improvement Research in Education” (Rowman & Littlefield).
Last year, he co-authored his most recent book about compassion and dignity as an essential framework for building caring and inclusive schools, “Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities: Leading Together to Address Everyday Suffering in Schools” (Jossey-Bass).
Class III: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Section 7: Education
Jun Ye
Ye’s election recognizes his extraordinary contributions to physics and quantum science, including pioneering advances in optical atomic clocks, precision measurement and quantum many-body physics.
Ye is a professor of physics at CU Boulder and physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He holds the Monroe Endowed Professorship in Physics and is a fellow at JILA. He has revolutionized how scientists measure time, developing quantum technologies that can track the passage of time with never-before-seen accuracy and precision.
Ye leads several quantum research initiatives at JILA. They include the CUbit Quantum Initiative and the Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering (Q-SEnSE) center funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
At JILA, Ye pioneered the design of optical atomic clocks, devices that measure time by tapping the behavior of atoms and electrons. His lab’s clocks would neither gain nor lose a second over billions of years.
Ye and his team have also worked to transform insights into the quantum world into technologies that can improve people’s lives. His lab, for example, built laser-based devices that can analyze samples of human breath, screening people for COVID-19 infections and other health conditions.
He earned his doctorate from CU Boulder in 1997, where he trained under Jan Hall, who went on to win a Nobel Prize in 2005. Ye returned to JILA in 1999 and has received numerous awards for his research, including the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Class I: Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Section 2: Physics
"Professors Penuel and Ye are emblematic of the world-class faculty at CU Boulder, combining research, scholarship, teaching and service in vital institutes with excellence in their disciplines,” said Provost Ann Stevens. “We are honored by their ongoing achievements and their induction into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and our students and the rest of the world are beneficiaries of their unique work."
The new class joins academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin (elected 1781) and Alexander Hamilton (1791) in the 18th century; Ralph Waldo Emerson (1864), Maria Mitchell (1848) and Charles Darwin (1874) in the 19th; Albert Einstein (1924), Robert Frost (1931), Margaret Mead (1948), Milton Friedman (1959), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966) and Jacques Derrida (1985) in the 20th century.
This century, members include: Madeleine K. Albright (2001), Antonin Scalia (2003), Jennifer Doudna, who did postdoctoral research under CU Boulder Nobel Laureate Tom Cech while a graduate student (2003), Esther Duflo (2009), John Legend (2017), Anna Deavere Smith (2019), Salman Rushdie (2022), Xuedong Huang (2023) and José Andrés (2025).
“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 250thanniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public good.”
Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2026. Learn more about theand its.