Eduardo S. Brondizio received an unexpected phone call May 3 as he landed in the small town of Tefe, in the western Brazilian Amazon, to continue field research: He had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

A Distinguished Professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Anthropology, Brondizio is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology and a foreign member of the French Academy of Agriculture.

He is only the 32nd faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences in the university’s history. The last IU faculty member elected to the organization was Bernice Pescosolido in 2021.

The National Academy of Sciences, established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, recognizes achievement in science by election to its membership. Along with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, it provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Brondizio was one of the 120 new members and 30 international members that the academy announced May 3. Members are selected in recognition of their distinguished and ongoing achievements in original research.