A Belgian at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Marleen Temmerman has lived in Kenya since 2015, where she is head of the Department of Reproductive Health at the World Health Organization (WHO). She works tirelessly to improve the rights and living conditions of women and children and has just been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her name will now sit alongside those of people such as Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela, to mention just a few.

The members of this prestigious academy include more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners among its almost 6,000 members, 600 of whom are from overseas. Their studies have helped to define the direction of research and analysis in scientific and technological policy, global security, international affairs, social policy, education, arts and humanities.

Fewer than 25 Belgians have received this honour from the American Academy, including Christian de Duve (1971) and Ilya Prigogine (1960), two of our Nobel Prize winners. More recently, Professor Jozef Schell (Ghent University), zoologist and doctor of microbiology and microbial genetics, and Professor Peter Carmeliet (KU Leuven), doctor and member of the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology (2021), have also joined the ranks of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This is wonderful recognition for Marleen Temmerman and the Belgian scientific world.