Ten years in the making, HIAS was founded by John L. Junkins, a professor of aerospace engineering, and the former interim President of Texas A&M University.

The US science, engineering and medicine nominees must already be members of their respective national academies, all others must be judged of equivalent or higher stature in their field.

Once recruited, HIAS Faculty Fellows nominally visit Texas A&M for up to 12 months, but appointments can also be distributed over several years.

While they give public lectures and are invited for periodic departmental or college seminars, they typically have no formal teaching assignments.

Their focus is research, scholarship, providing concentrated periods of time for collaboration with A&M's faculty and for development of graduate students.