(APRIL 20, 2011)-Two University of Utah professors internationally regarded for their research on the AIDS virus and the microscale and nanoscale domains of electrochemistry have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Wesley I. Sundquist, co-chair and H.A. and Edna Benning presidential professor of biochemistry, and Henry S. White, Jr., distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry, will be included in one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. They join such notables elected this year as David Page, whose genome sequencing work has advanced understanding of human reproduction, singer songwriter Paul Simon and jazz icon Dave Brubeck.

White has contributed to numerous publications, with a special interest in electrochemistry in microscale and nanoscale domains. He is the associate editor of the Journal of American Chemical Society and has received the Students Choice Teaching Award from the Associated Students of the University of Utah.

Sundquist has dedicated his research to the molecular and structural biology of retroviruses, with a particular emphasis on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. Projects in his lab focus on understanding the architecture and assembly of the viral particle, how host cells defend themselves from the virus and the process of budding, or how the virus spreads from cell to cell in the human body.

Members of the academy contribute to studies of science and technology policy, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and education. The new class will be inducted Oct. 1, 2011, at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

Since its founding in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, the academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.