The National Academy of Engineering recently announced the election of 67 new members. The new members bring the total number of U.S. members to 2,250.
The academy does not disclose the racial makeup of its membership, but past JBHE research has shown that Blacks make up about one percent of the members. According to an analysis of the new membership list by JBHE, it appears that no African Americans are among the 67 new electees.
Over the past four years, JBHE’s research found that there was a single Black engineer elected each year. Last year, Ursula M. Burns, CEO of Xerox Corporation, was the only African American among the 69 new members. In 2012, Babatunde A. Ogunnaike, the William L. Friend Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware was elected. In 2011, Roderich I. Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, was the only African American among the 68 new members. In 2010 Percy A. Pierre, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan State University was elected to the academy.
