On April 22 US local time, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) announced the list of newly elected members for the Class of 2026. Professor Nicolai Reshetikhin of the Beijing Yanqi Lake Institute of Mathematical Sciences (BIMSA) and the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University, was among the inductees. A total of 250 scholars were elected this year from the fields of mathematical and physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts, as well as public affairs, business and management, in recognition of their outstanding contributions in their respective disciplines.

Nicolai Reshetikhin is a leading scholar in mathematical physics. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, a co-founder of quantum group theory and RT invariants, a key contributor to the theory of quantum integrable systems, a major contributor to Poisson geometry, symplectic geometry and Quantum Kac-Moody algebras, and the founder of quantum 6j symbols related to quantum gravity.

In 2022, Nicolai Reshetikhin received the Weyl-Wigner Award, the most prestigious international award in mathematical physics, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to group theory in physics. In October 2024, he was awarded the Chinese Government Friendship Award, honoring his remarkable achievements during his tenure in China.