2001 Election of New Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members

View the list of new Fellows

Cambridge, MA, April 26, 2001 -- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced today the names of 208 distinguished scholars, scientists, artists, business executives, educators, and public officials who have been elected to membership in the nation's leading learned society. Members of this year's class were honored for their achievements in fields ranging from mathematics to medicine, from computer science to literary criticism, and from public affairs to the performing arts.

According to Academy President and former Dartmouth College chief executive James O. Freedman, "election is the result of a highly competitive selection process that recognizes those who have made preeminent contributions to all fields and professions." Leslie Berlowitz, the Academy's Executive Officer, noted that "the American Academy is unique in its breadth and scope." "Throughout its history," she added, "the Academy has gathered individuals with diverse interests and perspectives to participate in meetings, studies, and projects focusing on issues of concern to society."

Founded in the midst of the American Revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other leaders of the young nation, the Academy was chartered "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."

The Academy has numbered among its members each generation's finest minds and most influential leaders, from George Washington and Ben Franklin in the eighteenth century to Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership of 3,700 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members features more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its membership, the Academy carries out its work through pathbreaking studies in such areas as arms control, education, and the history and future of the humanities.

This year's election continues the Academy's tradition of honoring intellectual achievement, leadership, and creativity. The new class is composed of 183 Fellows, along with 25 Foreign Honorary Members from 13 nations.

New Fellows are nominated and elected by current members of the Academy. Members are divided into five broad classes: I) mathematics and physics; II) biological sciences; III) social sciences; IV) humanities and arts; and V) public affairs, business.

This year's new Fellows will be welcomed as members at the annual Induction Ceremony, scheduled to be held at the Academy's headquarters, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 13, 2001.

For more information about this year's new class or about the Induction Ceremony and other Academy events, please call Phyllis Bendell at (617) 576-5047 or email pbendell@amacad.org.

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