Sandra Chung, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
Chung is one of 261 new members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year, including Glenn Close, Harmit Singh Malik, Wesley Morris, Heather Cox Richardson, Salman Rushdie and Buffy Sainte-Marie.. Chung joins 27 other UCSC faculty who are fellows of the academy.
An internationally renowned scholar and leading authority on Austronesian languages, Chung is a past president of the Linguistic Society of America and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
In 2008, she was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for a three-year collaborative project to help preserve the endangered Chamorro language. In 2011, she was elected president of the Linguistic Society of America. Chung completed a grammar of Chamorro in 2020 and is currently working with community members on a Chamorro dictionary.
“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.”
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is both an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members and an independent research center convening leaders from across disciplines, professions, and perspectives to address significant challenges. Current members represent today’s innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than two hundred and fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.
