Professor Heather Maynard has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Professor Heather Maynard has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

A member of the UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty for more than two decades, Maynard holds UCLA’s Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Polymer Science. She is a worldwide leader in the area of protein-polymer conjugates, which are important therapeutics for a variety of diseases. She develops new synthetic methods to make the materials, invents new polymers to improve properties such as stability, and demonstrates preclinical efficacy of her conjugates with an eye towards translation for human health. Maynard also works in the area of smart materials for precision medicine: materials that respond to disease states in the body.

Maynard’s research and teaching have been recognized by numerous awards including the Macro Group UK Medal for Outstanding Achievement, American Chemical Society Arthur Cope Scholar Award, Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship Award, Fulbright Specialist Award, Hanson-Dow Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the UCLA Student Development Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. Maynard is an American Chemical Society (ACS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Leverhulme, Kavli Frontiers, and Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow and was a member of the United States Defense Science Study Group from 2016-2017.

At UCLA, Maynard serves as the Director of the National Institutes of Health funded Chemistry and Biology Interface Training Program, Co-Director of the National Science Foundation funded BioPACIFIC Materials Innovation Platform, and as Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Maynard is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Maynard received her PhD from the California Institute of Technology and was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).

In 1781, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were among the first members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

“I am honored and humbled to be elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a society established to recognize people, both past and present, whose knowledge, discoveries and innovations enrich and make better the world,” she said. “I hope to continue my work to add to their contributions.”