Lidia Morawska elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

A leading expert on air quality at the University of Surrey's Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) has been elected as a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Lidia Morawska, Vice-Chancellor Fellow at Surrey, is one of 25 new international honorary members selected this year. The Academy was established in 1780.

Professor Morawska recently led a team of global experts to propose national indoor air quality standards for public buildings. In 2021, Time magazine recognised her as one of the world's 100 most influential people for her work on the spread of COVID-19 through airborne particles.

It is an incredible honour to be elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to be recognised among the leading minds and innovators. I was astonished when I received the letter from the Academy confirming this honour. Professor Lidia Morawska, Vice Chancellor Fellow

Professor Morawska's previous awards also include the 2023 L'Oréal-UNESCO Laureate for Women in Science for Asia and the Pacific.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences' charter is "to cultivate every art and science which may advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people".

This is yet another great honour for Lidia that further emphasises the high esteem in which members of the Academy hold her and the respect she commands across the wider scientific community. We are proud to have her as a part of our GCARE team." Professor Prashant Kumar, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability, Professor and Chair in Air Quality and Health; Founding Director, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE)

The earliest members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and Alexander Graham Bell. Other more recent distinguished members include John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela.