3 UC Irvine professors elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Rina Dechter, Catherine Lord and Jennifer Martiny recognized for scholarly excellence
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Irvine, Calif., April 23, 2025 —Three University of California, Irvine professors – representing areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, studio art and ecology – have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The 245th class of inductees includes nearly 250 exceptional individuals from around the globe, honored for their excellence and success in academia, the arts, industry, public policy and research.
With their election, Rina Dechter, Catherine Lord and Jennifer Martiny join 38 other current and former UC Irvine scholars as academy members.
“Congratulations to Professors Dechter, Lord and Martiny on their recognition by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,” said Hal Stern, UC Irvine provost and executive vice chancellor. “Their election to the Academy reflects the high impact and quality of the research being conducted across a wide range of disciplines at UC Irvine.”
Dechter, a Distinguished Professor of computer science, conducts research in automated reasoning within artificial intelligence, a field of computer science that attempts to ensure what a system or program will do or will never do. The primary objective of her work is to develop efficient methods by understanding and exploiting controllable reasoning tasks. Among many honors, Dechter is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she serves as the associate dean for research in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences.
Lord, a professor emerita of art and women’s studies, is an artist, writer, curator and scholar whose challenging work – much of which combines photography and the written word – explores feminist, queer, colonial and cultural themes. Among her many honors, she received the 2010 Harvard Art Medal, which recognized her art’s exploration of the anxiety surrounding homosexuality and its promotion of lesbian visibility in contemporary art history. Lord was chair of the Department of Art in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts from 1990 to 1995 and was director of the University Art Gallery from 1991 to 1996.
Martiny, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, studies microbiomes, the collection of microorganisms that inhabit all ecosystems on Earth. Her primary focus is on understanding the mechanisms that govern microbial diversity and their importance for the overall function of ecosystems. As co-director of the Center for Microbiome Science, Martiny has conducted research on the microbiomes of soil, the ocean and the human body. Her work on soil samples from Orange County parklands revealed that bacteria and fungi influence how ecosystems respond to drought. Among many honors, Martiny is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, founded in 1780, is one of the U.S.’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening luminaries from the academic, business and government sectors to confront challenges facing the nation and the world. Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.
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