Two UC Berkeley scholars elected to the American Philosophical Society

The oldest scholarly organization in the U.S., the American Philosophical Society, has elected two UC Berkeley faculty members to its ranks.

In a May 1 announcement, the society named historian Carla Hesse and chemist Jeffrey Long to the 2026 class. A total of 43 national and international scholars received the honor.

The society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge” and each year welcomes new members from the humanities and all fields of STEM. New members are nominated by current members, who now total 5,896.

Hesse, the Jane K. and Peder Sather Professor of History, is an expert in modern French history and has authored two books about French intellectual history. She currently is working on a book concerning the legal history of the terror during the French Revolution and is researching the reception of the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau from 1789 to the present. Hesse served for 10 years (2009-2018) as the dean of social sciences in Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science, including four years as executive dean.

Long is the C. Judson King Distinguished Professor of chemistry and of chemical and biomolecular engineering and a senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of novel inorganic materials and molecules, with the goal of understanding new physical phenomena that have applications in gas storage, molecular separations, conductivity, catalysis and magnetism. A co-founder of two startups, he also directs the Baker Hughes Institute for Decarbonization Materials, which is developing cost-effective materials for carbon capture and clean power generation.