John L. Jackson, Jr., Duncan J. Watts, and Michael E. Mann Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced this week that Penn Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., Stevens University Professor Duncan J. Watts, and Presidential Distinguished Professor Michael E. Mann have been named elected members of its class of 2026. 

Founded in 1780, the Academy honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together to advance society. Academy studies have helped set the direction of research and analysis in science and technology policy, global security and international affairs, social policy, education, and the humanities.

“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 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.”

The three Annenberg scholars are among 252 new members elected to the Academy in 2026, and are joined by two other faculty affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania: Mark G. Allen of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Sara Cherry of the Perelman School of Medicine.

John L. Jackson, Jr. is Penn Provost, the fifth dean of the Annenberg School, the Richard Perry University Professor, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) professor with appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts & Sciences. A pioneering scholar of urban ethnography, visual culture, media studies, and the anthropology of race and religion, he is the only professor in Penn’s history to serve as dean of two Penn schools: Annenberg, from 2019 to 2023, and the School of Social Policy & Practice, from 2014 to 2018. Jackson helped found the Collective for Advancing Multimodal Research Arts (CAMRA) and the Center for Experimental Ethnography, and was inducted as a fellow of the International Communication Association in 2020. His influential work includes four major scholarly books and two co-written books, and he has produced or directed 10 films that have been screened at dozens of international film festivals.

Duncan J. Watts is the Stevens University Professor and the 23rd Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds faculty appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication, the Department of Computer and Information Science in Penn Engineering, and the Department of Operations, Information and Decisions in the Wharton School. Watts also directs the Computational Social Science Lab at Penn. He is a computational social scientist interested in social and organizational networks, collective dynamics of human systems, web-based experiments, and analysis of large-scale digital data, including the production, consumption, and absorption of news. He was named an inaugural fellow of the Network Science Society in 2018, a Carnegie Fellow in 2020, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2021, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

Michael E. Mann is the Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. Mann also directs the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media. He’s received numerous honors and awards, including the Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2020 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and in 2024, to the Royal Society. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2024. He’s authored more than 300 publications and seven books, including “Science Under Siege” with Peter Hotez.