American Academy Announces 2010 Class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two hundred and twenty-nine leaders in the sciences, social sciences, the humanities, the arts, business and public affairs have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The new Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members announced today join one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. A center for independent policy research, the Academy celebrates the 230th anniversary of its founding this year.

A complete list of the 2010 class of new members is located at: http://www.amacad.org/news/a2z10.pdf.

The scholars, scientists, jurists, writers, artists, civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders include winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, and Shaw Prizes; MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows; and Grammy, Tony, and Oscar Award winners.

Scientists among the new Fellows include: astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, who discovered more than half of the currently known extrasolar planets; chemist Joseph Francisco, whose research revolutionized our understanding of chemical processes in the atmosphere; Evelyn Hu, a pioneer in the fabrication of nanoscale electronic and photonic devices; Chung Law, whose research on combustion has implications for new classes of transportation fuels; Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie, creator of Lotus Notes; Christopher Field, whose research in global ecology has helped in the assessment and understanding of climate change; Timothy Ley, who led the group that sequenced the first human cancer genome; and physician-scientist Olufunmilayo Olopade, whose revolutionary findings on the genetics of breast cancer were translated into interventions for women around the world.

Social scientists include Nobel laureate economist Myron Scholes; demographer and U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves; archeologist Kathryn Bard, who has conducted pathbreaking excavations in Egypt; Edward Glaeser, whose empirical study of urban economics has helped explain housing bubbles in U.S. cities; environmental geographer Ruth DeFries, who uses satellite-imaging to help map and understand the environmental effects of agriculture and urbanization; and legal scholar and Lewis Powell biographer John Jeffries, Jr.

In the humanities and arts, new members include: theologian Harvey Cox, Jr.; Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Howe; Middle East historian Ervand Abrahamian; philosopher Christopher Peacocke; novelist Marilynne Robinson; installation and conceptual artist Dan Graham; Suzanne Farrell, former New York City Ballet principal dancer and founder of her own ballet company at the Kennedy Center; actors John Lithgow and Denzel Washington; director Francis Ford Coppola; violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo; jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins; and baritone Thomas Hampson.

Among those elected to the Academy from public affairs are U.S. Special Envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth; the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero; National Endowment for the Humanities Chair James Leach; and G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Business leaders in the 2010 class of new members include Roger Ferguson, Jr., President and CEO of financial services company TIAA–CREF; Marjorie Scardino, CEO of international media company Pearson PLC; and Samuel Palmisiano, Chairman and CEO of IBM.  

Higher education and foundation leaders in the new class are: Joseph Aoun (Northeastern University); Gene Block (University of California, Los Angeles); Scott Cowen (Tulane University); John DeGioia (Georgetown University); Susan Desmond-Hellmann (University of California, San Francisco); Robert Gallucci (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation); John Jenkins (University of Notre Dame); Jim Yong Kim (Dartmouth College); Morton Schapiro (Northwestern University); and Luis Ubinas (Ford Foundation).

The Academy also elected Foreign Honorary Members from Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. They include: the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams; Israeli high-energy physicist and advocate for Middle East cooperation Haim Harari; Australian Academy of Science president, Kurt Lambeck, whose geophysical research elucidates changes in climate and sea levels; Michel Mayor, director of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory; Linda Partridge, specialist in the biology of aging; Spain's former Minister of Education and Science, Jose María Maravall Herrero, who is credited with democratizing the Spanish educational system; British filmmaker and playwright Mike Leigh; Japanese architect Toyo Ito; Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen; and Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate.

Established in 1780 by John Adams and other founders of the nation, the Academy undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Its membership of scholars and practitioners from many disciplines and professions gives it a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary, long-term policy research. Current projects focus on science and technology; global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education.

"We are pleased to welcome these distinguished individuals into the Academy," said Leslie Berlowitz, Chief Executive Officer and William T. Golden Chair. "We look forward to drawing on their knowledge and expertise to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing issues of the day."

"The men and women we elect today are true pathbreakers who have made unique contributions to their fields, and to the world," said Academy Chair Louis W. Cabot. "The Academy honors them and their work, and they, in turn, honor us."

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 9, at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, 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.

SOURCE American Academy of Arts & Sciences