Academy Announces 2007 Class of Fellows
Those Elected Include Scholars, Scientists,
Artists, Civic, Corporate and Philanthropic Leaders
April 30, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, MA - The American Academy of Arts
and Sciences today announced the election of 203 new Fellows and 24 new Foreign
Honorary Members. Those elected include a former Vice President of the United
States; a former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court; the
mayor of New York City; winners of Nobel and Academy Awards and the Pulitzer
Prize; corporate CEOs; and two former chairs of the President’s Council of
Economic Advisors.
The 227 scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate
and philanthropic leaders come from 27 states and 13 countries, and range in
age from 36 to 92. Represented among this year’s newly elected members are 70
universities, including seven presidents or chancellors; more than a dozen
corporations; as well as museums, research institutes, media outlets and
foundations.
This year’s new Fellows include former Vice President
Albert Gore, Jr.; former Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor;
New York Mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg; Google Chairman and CEO Eric
Schmidt; New York Times investigative correspondent James Risen;
filmmaker Spike Lee; economists Gregory Mankiw and Murray Weidenbaum;
astronomer Donald Brownlee; robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks; Pixar Chief
Creative Officer John Lasseter; supercomputer expert David Shaw; pianist
Emanuel Ax; historian Nell Painter; former White House official and Berkeley
Law Dean Christopher Edley; classicist Sabine MacCormack; and international
public health leader Allan Rosenfield.
Foreign Honorary Members in this year’s class come from
Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and include Italian glassblower Lino
Tagliapietra; Israeli biochemist and Nobel laureate Avram Hershko; French
literary scholar Tzvetan Todorov; Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem
Koolhaas; and Canadian Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella.
Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members are nominated and
elected to the Academy by current members. A broad-based membership, comprised
of scholars and practitioners from mathematics, physics, biological sciences,
social sciences, humanities and the arts, public affairs and business, gives
the Academy a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary
studies and public policy research.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome these
outstanding leaders in their fields to the Academy,” said Academy President
Emilio Bizzi. “Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that
recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their
disciplines and to society at large.”
“Throughout its history, the Academy has convened the
leading thinkers of the day, from diverse perspectives, to participate in
projects and studies that advance the public good,” added Chief Executive
Officer Leslie Berlowitz. “I am confident that this distinguished class of new
Fellows will continue that tradition of cherishing knowledge and shaping the
future.”
The Academy will welcome this year’s new class at its
annual Induction Ceremony on October 6, at the Academy’s headquarters in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John
Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the Academy has elected as Fellows and
Foreign Honorary Members the finest minds and most influential leaders 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 170 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize
winners. An independent policy research center, the Academy undertakes studies
of complex and emerging problems. Current Academy research focuses on science
and global security; social policy; the humanities and culture; and education.
The list of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members with
their affiliations at the time of election:
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