CITA Professor Norman Murray has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2025
Professor Norman Murray from the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics is the only University of Toronto professor elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2025. He has been distinguished as CLASS I: Mathematical and Physical Sciences scholar for his significant contribution to Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Earth Sciences along with six other esteemed researchers including:
- Roger Chevalier, University of Virginia
- Kim Cobb, Brown University
- Karen M. Fischer, Brown University
- Bruce Partridge, Haverford College
- Frederic Rasio, Northwestern University
- Paul Segall, Stanford University
Since 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has honored excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address issues of importance, and work together “to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”
With his election to the Academy, Professor Murray joins the company of notable members such as Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maria Mitchell, and Alexander Graham Bell. International Honorary Members have included Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Wislawa Szymborska, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson Mandela. Current members represent today’s innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than two hundred and fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.
The newest members of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences, announced on April 23, 2025, have distinguished themselves in academia, the arts, industry, policy, research, and science. “These new members’ accomplishments speak volumes about the human capacity for discovery, creativity, leadership, and persistence. They are a stellar testament to the power of knowledge to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding,” said Academy President Laurie L. Patton.
Earlier this year Professor Murray was also named a 2025 Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for his “seminal contributions to our theories of chaos in the solar system, including planet formation and evolution; and for pioneering new methods for studying the physics of black hole accretion and the effects of stars and supermassive black holes on galaxy formation.”
Murray is a long-standing faculty member at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He adds the 2025 AAAS Member distinction to a long list of honours including the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics received in 2022, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
In addition to his numerous distinctions and fundamental contributions to the field of Astrophysics, Murray has worked with and mentored more than 50 postdoctoral fellows and a great number of graduate students. Many of his former students are now among the leaders of the astrophysics field.
Contact:
Lyuba Encheva
Communications and Events, CITA
Email: lyuba@cita.utoronto.ca