Department of Biology

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in the United States, has elected Lynda Delph to its ranks in its latest class of honorees. Delph is a Distinguished Professor in the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780, includes more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. It represents and honors innovative thinkers across fields and professions who examine new ideas, address important issues and advance the public good.

Delph's research interests involve evolutionarily based questions concerning various aspects of flowering plant reproduction from both ecological and genetic perspectives. She has worked to understand phenotypic evolution—why organisms look the way they do from the perspective of how selection is operating on them and also how the genetic architecture of traits both contributes to and constrains adaptation. The Delph Lab she leads at IU focuses on evolutionary processes of a variety of organisms, along the continuum from adaptation to speciation.

Her work has been published in journals such as Evolution, The American Naturalist, and Current Biology as well as in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Delph was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in 2010 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. At IU, she has received the Trustees' Teaching Award and the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award. She was president of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 2021.

Two other Indiana University faculty members—Jamsheed K. Choksy and Elisabeth A. Lloyd—were also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. Lloyd, who is an adjunct professor in the biology department, is a Distinguished Professor in the College's Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine. Choksy is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School of International Studies and a Distinguished Professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"Congratulations to Professors Jamsheed Choksy, Lynda Delph, and Elisabeth Lloyd on their election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," IU President Pamela Whitten said. "These three distinguished Indiana University faculty members have pursued excellence in their fields, and this honor in recognition of their exceptional achievements is well-deserved."

They were among 261 new members elected in the 2022 class that was announced April 28. The class includes artists, scholars, scientists and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.