CAMBRIDGE, MA — The American Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted some of the world's most distinguished scholars, artists, and institutional leaders here on Saturday, October 9. The induction ceremony was part of a three-day series of events to officially welcome the 230th class of new Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members into the Academy.

Five members of the new class addressed their colleagues: the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insititution, G. Wayne Clough; renowned cancer researcher and Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, Susan Desmond-Hellmann; veteran diplomat and President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Robert L. Gallucci; 15-term congressman and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humantities, Jim Leach; and former Federal Reserve System Vice Chair and current CEO of financial services company TIAA-CREF, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. Federal Judge Diane Wood and actors Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber also participated in the program.

The weekend events also included a program celebrating the arts and humanities that featured new Fellows including actor, musician and author John Lithgow; novelist Marilynne Robinson; poet Henri Cole; conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies; and violinist Arnold Steinhardt; as well as a symposium on Technology and Society with, among others, Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist Vinton Cerf; Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero; and Marjorie Scardino, CEO of international media company Pearson PLC.

The 210 new Fellows and 18 Foreign Honorary Members are leaders in research, scholarship, business, the arts, and public affairs. Complete List of New Members

For more information, please contact Paul Karoff at 617-576-5043 or pkaroff@amacad.org.