The CORE Academy is pleased to present Voices of Fellowship: Selected Letters and Messages from CORE Academy Fellows, a special collection of selected letters, responses, and acceptance messages received from Fellows following their election to the Academy.
The collection brings together voices from a wide range of fields, countries, and intellectual traditions. Some contributions are full letters, while others are shorter messages sent to the Academy. Together, they form a modest but meaningful record of the Academy’s growing Fellowship, showing how scholars understand academic honor, intellectual responsibility, and the wider purpose of international scholarly cooperation.
The Fellows featured in this collection represent fields across the natural sciences, engineering and applied sciences, mathematics and information sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences. Their work ranges from climate and Earth system science, geophysics, chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, digital storage, systems engineering, computational mechanics, mathematics, and computer science to literary studies, cultural history, musicology, innovation studies, renewable energy, optoelectronics, and solar energy systems. Their messages offer a more personal glimpse into the values that sustain scholarly life beyond formal titles and distinctions.
By publishing this special collection, CORE Academy seeks to preserve not only a record of election and recognition, but also a living archive of scholarly voices. These letters and messages remind us that an academy is more than an institution of honors. It is a community formed through shared purpose, intellectual generosity, and a common belief that knowledge should serve humanity.
Carlos Nobre
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Carlos Nobre is a leading Earth system scientist and climate researcher whose work has profoundly shaped global understanding of the Amazon, climate change, and the risks of ecological tipping points. He has played a major role in advancing climate science and international environmental policy. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, and the World Academy of Sciences, and served as a Lead Author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which was recognized with the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Kees Schouhamer Immink
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Few figures have done more to shape the modern world of digital storage than Kees Schouhamer Immink. His work in coding theory and recording technology played a foundational role in the development of the Compact Disc, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc, and helped usher in the modern age of digital audio, video, and data storage. A Dutch engineer, inventor, and information theorist, he is internationally recognized for innovations such as EFM and EFMPlus, which became key enabling technologies in optical recording. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and has received major distinctions including the IEEE Medal of Honor and the IET Faraday Medal.
Kadir Gulamov
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Kadir Gulamov has made longstanding contributions to physics and scientific leadership in Uzbekistan. Trained in nuclear physics, he is known for his research in high-energy interactions and for his later role in advancing interdisciplinary work in semiconductor physics, materials science, and solar energy. An Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan and a Fellow of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences, he previously served as Chief Scientific Secretary of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences and General Director of the “Physics-Sun” Association. He is currently Chairman of the Council of Physicists of Uzbekistan and Chief Scientist at the Physical-Technical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.
Batmanathan Dayanand Reddy
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Mathematics and Information Sciences
Batmanathan Dayanand Reddy is an applied mathematician and science leader whose work has made major contributions to computational mechanics, solid mechanics, plasticity theory, and finite element methods. He is especially known for combining rigorous mathematical analysis with engineering applications, and for advancing the role of science in Africa and in international scholarly cooperation. A Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics and former Interim Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, he served as the inaugural President of the International Science Council. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow or member of all four South African academies, as well as the World Academy of Sciences.
Isa Habibbeyli
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Humanities
Isa Habibbeyli is a distinguished literary scholar and academic leader whose work has made important contributions to the history and theory of Azerbaijani literature. He is especially known for his research on literary movements, genres, and periodization, as well as for his studies of major literary figures including Jalil Mammadguluzadeh. He serves as Academician and President of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Director General of the Institute of Literature named after Nizami Ganjavi. He was elected a foreign member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences.
Doros Nicolas Theodorou
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Doros Nicolas Theodorou has played a pioneering role in bringing molecular-level simulation into the modern study of polymers and complex materials. His work has opened important new directions in computational materials science, especially through the development of multiscale modeling strategies that connect molecular and supramolecular structure with macroscopic properties, processing, and performance. A Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and Director of its Computational Materials Science and Engineering group, he is a member of the Academy of Athens and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He has also been recognized with distinctions, including the European Materials Medal and the DSM Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ernesto Estrada
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Mathematics and Information Sciences
Ernesto Estrada has played a major role in shaping the mathematical analysis of complex networks. He is especially known for his contributions to network theory, spectral graph methods, and mathematical chemistry, including the development of influential concepts such as the Estrada index and network communicability. A Research Professor at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC, CSIC–UIB), he also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Complex Networks. He is a SIAM Fellow, a member of Academia Europaea, and a fellow or member of several leading international scientific academies and societies.
Janaka Ekanayake
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Janaka Ekanayake is an outstanding electrical engineer whose work has made important contributions to renewable energy generation and integration, smart grids, and modern power systems. He is especially known for combining power engineering with emerging technologies in grid planning, protection, and sustainable energy systems. Senior Professor and Chair of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, he has also held academic appointments at Cardiff University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, and is widely recognized for his leadership in engineering research and education in Sri Lanka and beyond.
Dieter Bimberg
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Dieter Bimberg is a pioneering physicist, materials scientist, and electrical engineer whose work has helped define the modern field of semiconductor nanostructures and nanophotonic devices. He is especially renowned for his fundamental contributions to quantum dots, quantum-dot lasers, and energy-efficient optical data communication, fields in which his research has opened new frontiers in information science, communications, and photonic technologies. A chair professor at Technische Universität Berlin and founding director of its Center of NanoPhotonics, he has also led the Bimberg Chinese-German Center for Green Photonics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and has received major distinctions including the Optica Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal, and the Stern–Gerlach Medal, the German Physical Society’s highest award for experimental physics.
Herbert Gleiter
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Herbert Gleiter is a pioneering physicist and materials scientist whose work helped lay the foundations of the modern field of nanostructured materials. He is especially known for his fundamental contributions to the study of grain boundaries, the development of nanocrystalline materials, and the introduction of nanoglasses, thereby opening new frontiers in materials science by showing how novel atomic structures can give rise to new properties and technological possibilities. He has received numerous international distinctions, including the Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Prize, the Jan Czochralski Award, and the Von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society. He has also been elected as a fellow or member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Europaea, and more than fifteen leading international scientific organizations and academies.
Piero Formica
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Social Sciences
Piero Formica has long been a distinctive voice in the study of innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge economics. His work has explored how creativity, open innovation, and transdisciplinary thinking can reshape entrepreneurial ecosystems, institutions, and education. He began his career as an economist at the OECD and later held academic posts, including Professor of Economics with a special focus on innovation and entrepreneurship at Jönköping International Business School. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow and Thought Leader at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University, where he leads research on experimentation and simulation in high-expectation start-ups, and he was appointed a Distinguished International Collaborator of Maynooth University in 2025.
Xiao Wei Sun
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Xiao Wei Sun has built an influential career at the intersection of optoelectronics, advanced display technology, and functional semiconductor materials. His work has made important contributions to wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, quantum-dot and perovskite optoelectronics, advanced displays, and glasses-free 3D technology, helping to connect fundamental materials research with emerging applications in lighting, imaging, and energy-related technologies. He is Chair Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology and Executive Dean of its Institute of Nanoscience and Applications, and previously served as Full Professor and Director of the Microelectronics Center at Nanyang Technological University. He is a Fellow of IEEE, Optica, SPIE, SID, and the Institute of Physics, and was the first mainland Chinese scholar elected as an SID Fellow; he is also a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and an Academician of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials.
Soteris Kalogirou
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
For decades, Soteris Kalogirou has been a prominent voice in renewable energy engineering and solar energy systems. He is especially known for his work on solar thermal collectors, hybrid photovoltaic/thermal systems, and the use of artificial intelligence in the modelling and performance prediction of renewable energy technologies. A Professor at the Cyprus University of Technology, he has also served as Editor-in-Chief of Renewable Energy. He is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, a Founding Member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and a Member of Academia Europaea, and has received international recognition, including awards from the World Renewable Energy Network.
Alik Ismail-Zadeh
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Alik Ismail-Zadeh is a leading geophysicist whose work has made important contributions to computational geodynamics, mathematical geophysics, and disaster risk science. He is especially known for using numerical modelling, inverse problems, and data assimilation to study mantle dynamics, seismicity, volcanic processes, and natural hazards. A Research Professor of Computational Geodynamics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he has also served as Secretary-General of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and Secretary of the International Science Council. He is a Member of Academia Europaea, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, IUGG, and ISC, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Peter Burke
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Humanities
Peter Burke is one of the most influential cultural historians of his generation, whose work has helped shape the study of cultural history, the history of knowledge, and historical thought. He is especially known for bringing social history, anthropology, sociology, language, images, memory, and communication into the study of Renaissance and early modern Europe, while later extending his scholarship to the modern history of knowledge. Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and Life Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Member of Academia Europaea, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and recipient of the Academia Europaea Erasmus Medal.
Arif M. Hashimov
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Arif M. Hashimov is a distinguished power engineer and electrophysicist whose work has made important contributions to high-voltage physics and technology, power engineering, electromagnetic processes in electric networks, and wave processes in electric systems. He has combined research in theoretical electrical engineering with long-standing leadership in Azerbaijan’s energy science and academic institutions. An Academician and Academician-Secretary of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, he has also served as Director of the Azerbaijan Scientific-Research and Design Energy Institute and Leading Scientist at the Institute of Physics. He is a Laureate of the State Prize in Science and Technique of Azerbaijan, an Honored Scientist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Ion Tiginyanu
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Ion Tiginyanu is a leading materials scientist and nanotechnology researcher whose work has made important contributions to nanostructured materials, semiconductor nanostructures, and photonic and electronic device systems. He is especially known for developing surface charge lithography and hopping electrodeposition, and for advancing smart nanomaterials for multifunctional applications. President of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and Founder and Director of the National Center for Materials Study and Testing, he is a Member of Academia Europaea and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of the International Science Council and SPIE, and an Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy.
Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi is a leading geophysicist whose work has made important contributions to paleomagnetism, impact cratering, tectonics, crustal structure, and Earth science. He is especially known for his studies of the Chicxulub impact crater and the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, as well as for leading major drilling projects in the impact area. Emeritus Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Director of the Chicxulub Institute of Advanced Studies, he is a Member of El Colegio Nacional and Academia Europaea, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a Fellow of TWAS, and former President of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.
Boris Kashin
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Mathematics and Information Sciences
Boris Kashin is a distinguished mathematician whose work has made important contributions to functional analysis, approximation theory, orthogonal series, and the geometry of Banach spaces. He is especially known for foundational results on widths and diameters of finite-dimensional sets and function classes, and for connecting convex geometric methods with approximation theory and entropy. He is Chief Scientific Officer and Head of the Department of Functions Theory at the Steklov Mathematical Institute and Head of the Department of Functions Theory and Functional Analysis at Moscow State University. A Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Matematicheskii Sbornik / Sbornik: Mathematics.
Neil Siegel
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Neil Siegel is a distinguished systems engineer and computer engineer whose work has made important contributions to large-scale systems engineering, complex socio-technical systems, information networking, and GPS-enabled applications. He is especially known for developing methods, design patterns, and metrics to improve the delivery of large, complex systems that serve major societal and institutional needs. IBM Professor of Engineering Management and Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Computer Science Practice with Distinction at the University of Southern California, he is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of IEEE, INCOSE, and the National Academy of Inventors, and a recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
Peter Gruss
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
Peter Gruss is a distinguished developmental biologist whose work has made important contributions to gene regulation, embryonic development, and molecular cell biology. He is especially known for his research on enhancer activity and Pax genes, which advanced understanding of the genetic control of organ formation, including the pancreas, eye, and nervous system. President Emeritus of the Max Planck Society and former President of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, he has played a major role in international science leadership. He is a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Europaea, and EMBO, and has received major distinctions including the Leibniz Prize, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, and the German Future Prize.
C.N.R. Rao
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Natural Sciences
C. N. R. Rao is one of the world’s leading chemists, whose work has made fundamental contributions to solid-state and materials chemistry, structural chemistry, and nanoscience. He is especially known for his studies of transition metal oxides, high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and other advanced functional materials. Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, he has also played a major role in Indian and international science leadership. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.
Sartaj Sahni
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Mathematics and Information Sciences
Sartaj Sahni is a distinguished computer scientist whose work has made important contributions to algorithms, data structures, scheduling, optimization, and parallel computing. He is especially known for his research on efficient algorithm design and analysis, NP-hard and NP-complete problems, scalable computing, and interconnection networks, as well as for his influential textbooks in computer science education. Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering at the University of Florida, he is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAS, a Member of the European Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society W. Wallace McDowell Award, the IEEE Computer Society Taylor L. Booth Education Award, and the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award.
Harry White
Fellow of CORE Academy, Division of Humanities
Harry White is a distinguished musicologist and cultural historian whose work has made important contributions to the study of music in Irish cultural and intellectual history. He is especially known for showing how music belongs to the wider study of literature, nationalism, historical memory, and cultural formation, while also contributing to scholarship on Austrian Baroque music and Anglo-American musicology. Emeritus Chair of Music at University College Dublin, he has played a formative role in building modern musicology in Ireland through Irish Musical Studies, the Society for Musicology in Ireland, and The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Academia Europaea, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, a Corresponding Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and recipient of the Harrison Medal and the Michael J. Durkan Prize.