Magdalena Balazinska and Shwetak Patel were recently elected part of the 2026 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. They join the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Einstein, Jennifer Doudna, Barack Obama and more.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honor societies, elected two Allen School faculty as part of its 2026 class of new members — Allen School director and professor Magdalena Balazinska and professor Shwetak Patel. Chartered in 1780, the Academy recognizes exceptional individuals across academia, industry, the arts and more who examine new ideas and address issues of importance to both the nation and the world.
Magdalena Balazinska: The “extraordinary leader” advancing data management and data science education and research
The Academy recognized Allen School director and professor Magdalena Balazinska for her trailblazing contributions and service to the field of data management and data science.
“I’m deeply honored to join the Academy’s distinguished group of leaders past and present from such a large breadth of areas. Since hearing the news, I have been reflecting on how incredibly far science and engineering have come since the founding of the Academy,” said Balazinska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the Allen School. “They have dramatically changed our lives. Yet so many opportunities and also challenges remain ahead of us. And in my own field of data management, for example, AI has the potential to accelerate progress in ways I couldn’t have imagined at the start of my career.”
