Recent Honors and Prizes
Nobel Prizes were awarded to four Academy Fellows in early October,
two in Physiology or Medicine, and two in Economics. Paul Greengard
(Rockefeller University) and Eric Richard Kandel (Columbia University) were
awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Arvid
Carlsson, for their discoveries concerning "signal transduction in the nervous
system," according to the Nobel Assembly. James J. Heckman (University of
Chicago) and Daniel L. McFadden (University of California, Berkeley) shared the
2000 Nobel Prize in Economics for their work in the field of microeconometrics;
each of the laureates "has developed theory and methods that are widely used in
the statistical analysis of individual and household behavior, within economics
as well as other social sciences." The Academy includes more than 170 Nobel
Prize winners in its current ranks.
On October 11, seven Fellows of the Academy were named National Book Award
finalists in recognition of extraordinary literary achievement. In the category
of nonfiction, Jacques Barzun (Columbia University) received a nomination for
his scholarship and insight into the foundations of Western civilization. In
the fiction category, the foundation named Alan Lightman (MIT), Joyce Carol
Oates (Princeton University), and Susan Sontag (author, film and theater
director) for recent work. The Academy enjoys an equally strong representation
in the poetry category, with Fellows Lucille Clifton (St. Mary's College,
Maryland), Galway Kinnell (New York University), and Kenneth Koch (Columbia
University) receiving nominations for that award.
Four Fellows of the Academy were among 15 Americans who received
the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in
August. James Edward Burke (Johnson & Johnson, Inc.), Marian Wright Edelman
(Children's Defense Fund), John Kenneth Galbraith (Harvard University), and
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (United States Senate) were honored for their
contributions "especially meritorious to the security or national interests of
the United States, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or
private endeavors."
Richard J. Franke (John Nuveen Company) has been named a recipient
of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Award for Distinguished Service to the
Humanities. Established in 1972, the award is conferred from "time to time" on
persons "of great distinction in fostering the place of the humanities and
humanities scholarship in American culture." Mr. Franke is one of the leaders
of the Academy's Initiative for the Humanities
and Culture and Chair of the Academy's Investment Committee.
Back to the November 2000 Newsletter
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