Engineering graduate and Houston native Ernest H. Cockrell was among 212 of the world's most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities and the arts elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) April 19.
Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of The University of Texas System and a nationally renowned pediatric and transplant surgeon prior to joining the university, was also elected into the academy.
Cockrell, Cigarroa and other new members join one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to academy studies of science and technology policy, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and education.
"It is a privilege to honor these men and women for their extraordinary individual accomplishments," said Leslie Berlowitz, academy president and William T. Golden Chair. "The knowledge and expertise of our members give the Academy a unique capacity – and responsibility – to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing challenges of the day. We look forward to engaging our new members in this work."Cockrell earned a bachelor's degree in engineering science in 1967 and a master's degree at the university in business administration in 1970. He serves as chairman of Cockrell Interests Inc., and is president and director of The Cockrell Foundation, which provides financial support to charitable organizations as well as to the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.
Each year, portions of available funds are given to the school, which now carries the family name. Ernest H. Cockrell's father, Ernest Cockrell Jr., was a petroleum graduate from the university in 1936.
The academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots. Since then, the academy has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
Cockrell is a Distinguished Engineering Graduate and was inducted into the university's McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame in 2003. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Young Texas Ex and a Distinguished Alumnus by the Texas Exes Alumni Association.
