
Dr.
David W. Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Chemist; Academic administrator; Educator
Area
Leadership, Policy, and Communications
Specialty
Educational and Academic Leadership
Elected
2012
David W. Oxtoby is President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is President Emeritus of Pomona College and he was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education prior to becoming President of the American Academy. As the ninth president of Pomona College, serving from 2003–2017, he has been recognized as a leader in American higher education, at the forefront in advancing environmental sustainability, increasing college access, cultivating creativity, and pursuing academic excellence in the context of an interdisciplinary liberal arts environment. Previously he served as Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences and the William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Dr. Oxtoby has been the recipient of several fellowships, including from the Guggenheim and National Science foundations. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Chemical Society. He was an Overseer of Harvard University from 2008–2014 and is a member of the Ojai Music Festival Board. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Oxtoby received honorary degrees from Occidental College (2005), Lingnan University in Hong Kong (2009), and Miami Dade College (2019). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.
Last Updated
Academy Involvement
Governance and Committees
- Committee on Anti-Racism
- Board of Directors, President
- Council, ex officio
- Trust, ex officio
- Committee on Studies and Publications, ex officio
- Committee on Membership, ex officio
- Development and Communications Committee, ex officio
- Finance Committee, ex officio
- Investment Committee, ex officio
- Nominating Committee, ex officio
Projects
Project|
The Higher Education Forum
Events
Event |
Induction for Members Elected in 2020 and 2021
Cambridge, MA
Event |
Bridging Divides in America
Featuring
Andy Barr, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Derek Kilmer, Farah Pandith, Laurie L. Patton, Eric P. Liu, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
What Does it Mean to be an American? Reexamining the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Featuring
E. J. Dionne, María Teresa Kumar, John Shattuck, Danielle Allen, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Honoring Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Featuring
Henry Louis Gates, David M. Rubenstein, Nancy C. Andrews, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Future of the Global Order
Featuring
Michael A. McFaul, Mary Elise Sarotte, Oxana Shevel, Timothy Snyder, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Night at the Museums
Featuring
Scott Vernon Edwards, Jon McVey Erlandson, Matt Friedman, Douglas E. Soltis, Pamela S. Soltis, Victoria L. Sork, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Honoring Charles L. Bennett with the Rumford Prize
Featuring
Charles L. Bennett, Marc Kamionkowski, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Congressional Briefing: Supporting America’s Creative Workers
Featuring
Mary V. Bordeaux, Teresa Leger Fernández , John A. Lithgow, Betty McCollum, David W. Oxtoby, Deborah F. Rutter, Kristin Sakoda, and Laura Zabel
Online
Event |
Emerging Science Partners and the Future of Global Research
Featuring
Bruce Michael Alberts, Arthur I. Bienenstock, Kerri-Ann Jones, Shirley Mahaley Malcom, Peter F. Michelson, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, Khaled Toukan, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Congressional Briefing: The Value of Equitable Arts Education
Featuring
Suzanne Bonamici, Brian Kisida, John A. Lithgow, Morgan (Mwalim) Peters, Chellie Pingree, Deborah F. Rutter, David A. Sousa, Paul Sznewajs, Natasha D. Trethewey, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The Supreme Court’s Transformational Year: A Conversation with Linda Greenhouse
Featuring
Linda Greenhouse and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
How Higher Education Can Save American Democracy
Featuring
Melody C. Barnes, Ronald J. Daniels, Lisa Garcia Bedolla, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The Afterlife of the Humanities Major
Featuring
Robert Newman, Pam Hendrickson, Rebekah Paré, Ben Vinson, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
New Horizons: Elevating the Arts in American Life
Featuring
Stephen Colbert, John A. Lithgow, Deborah F. Rutter, Natasha D. Trethewey, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
“Good Enough” Governance and Peacekeeping
Featuring
Karl W. Eikenberry, Vanda Felbab-Brown, Stephen D. Krasner, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Clare Lockhart, Stephen Stedman, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
American Democracy Under Construction
Featuring
Judy Woodruff, Hahrie Han, Wallace B. Jefferson, Yuval Levin, Norman Jay Ornstein, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Reckoning with Organizational History
Featuring
Claudia Rankine, John J. DeGioia, Susan Goldberg, Brent Leggs, Ben Vinson, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The Hybrid Workplace of the Future
Featuring
James M. Manyika, Indra Nooyi, David W. Oxtoby, and Robert Charles Pozen
Online
Event |
Exploring the Future of International Large-Scale Science
Featuring
Arthur I. Bienenstock, E. William Colglazier, France A. Córdova, James W. Curran, Jonathan Manne Dorfan, Kaye G. Husbands Fealing, Peter F. Michelson, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Reflections on a Full, Consequential, and Lucky Life: Science, Leadership, and Education
Featuring
Walter E. Massey, Don Michael Randel, David W. Oxtoby, and Young-Kee Kim
Online
Event |
Artists at Work
Featuring
Oskar Eustis, Thelma Golden, David W. Oxtoby, and Laura Zabel
Online
Event |
The Post-Pandemic Future of Higher Education: A Convening of American Academy Affiliates
Featuring
Richard Arum, Ana Mari Cauce, Robert J. Jones, Christina Hull Paxson, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Investing in Civic Education and Our Democracy
Featuring
Danielle Allen, Shawn P. Healy, Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, David McCullough III, David W. Oxtoby, and Tammy Waller
Online
Event |
“Our Towns” Virtual Screening and Q&A
Featuring
Steven Ascher, Deborah Fallows, James M. Fallows, Jeanne Jordan, Dee Davis, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The American Mythology of Racial Progress
Featuring
Jennifer A. Richeson and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Honoring Margaret Atwood
Featuring
Margaret Atwood, Gish Jen, Nancy C. Andrews, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Development
Featuring
Rommie Amaro, Natasha Martin, David W. Oxtoby, and Robert “Chip” Schooley
Online
Event |
Empathy and Our Future
Featuring
Eric P. Liu, Sherry Turkle, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Why America Needs Service, Now More Than Ever
Featuring
Kristen Bennett, Josh Fryday, Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Darryl Lester, David W. Oxtoby, and Fareed Zakaria
Online
Event |
American Democracy and Civic Participation in 2021: A Conversation with Danielle Allen and Eric Liu
Featuring
Danielle Allen, Helene D. Gayle, Eric P. Liu, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Southern California Members Reception
Featuring
Geoffrey Cowan, Antonia Hernández, John A. Lithgow, David W. Oxtoby, and Ernest James Wilson
Online
Event |
Introducing ‘Measuring Civil Justice for All’
Featuring
John Mark Hansen, David W. Oxtoby, Rebecca L. Sandefur, and James Joseph Sandman
Online
Event |
A Timely Confluence: The Backstory of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine
Featuring
Melissa Moore and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Honoring Ruth Lehmann and Gertrud Schüpbach
Featuring
Ruth Lehmann, Gertrud M. Schüpbach, Nancy C. Andrews, David W. Oxtoby, and Shirley M. Tilghman
Online
Event |
Making Sweet Tea: A Discussion with E. Patrick Johnson
Featuring
E. Patrick Johnson and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Honoring William Labov
Featuring
William David Labov, Penelope Dorothy Eckert, Wendell Pritchett, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Making the Case for International Scientific Partnerships
Featuring
Arthur I. Bienenstock, Peter F. Michelson, Shirley Mahaley Malcom, Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Health and Civil Justice: Innovative Partnerships Between Medicine and the Law
Featuring
Jay Chaudhary, Bethany Hamilton, Sharad Kohli, David W. Oxtoby, Allison Rice, and Keegan Warren-Clem
Online
Event |
A Conversation with Astronaut Jessica Meir
Featuring
Jessica U. Meir, Brian G. Keating, Thomas Evan Levy, David W. Oxtoby, and Geoffrey Myles Wahl
Online
Event |
Exploring the Humanities in American Life
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby, Jon Parrish Peede, Kenneth L. Burns, Brenda Thomson, and Kevin Young
Online
Event |
Civil Justice for All: Law Schools and the Civil Justice Gap
Featuring
Tonya L. Brito, Margaret H. Marshall, Dayna Bowen Matthew, Martha Louise Minow, Andrew M. Perlman, Quinten Steenhuis, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century: A Humanities Day Discussion
Featuring
William G. Howell, Thomas B. Ginsburg, Tracey L. Meares, Susan Carol Stokes, Diane P. Wood, Eric Slauter, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Launching A New Report, “Civil Justice for All”
Featuring
Kenneth C. Frazier, John G. Levi, Martha Louise Minow, David M. Rubenstein, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Earning Trust in the Age of the Pandemic
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby, Victor J. Dzau, Francis Sellers Collins, Evelynn M. Hammonds, Seth Mnookin, Monica Schoch-Spana, and Erica Palma Kimmerling
Online
Event |
Does Meritocracy Destroy the Common Good?
Featuring
Michael J. Sandel, Anna Deavere Smith, T.J. Jackson Lears, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
The Dilemma Facing America’s Schools During COVID-19
Featuring
Austin M. Beutner, Sara Bleich, and David W. Oxtoby
Video of Online Event
Event |
Democratic Citizenship: A Discussion with the Commission’s Leaders and Academy Members
Featuring
Danielle Allen, Stephen B. Heintz, , and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Reflections on the State of the Humanities in Colleges and Universities
Featuring
Jonathan Scott Holloway, Melissa Nobles, David W. Oxtoby, and Robert B. Townsend
Online
Event |
Technology and Empathy After COVID-19
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby and Sherry Turkle
Online
Event |
Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century
Featuring
Danielle Allen, Stephen B. Heintz, Eric P. Liu, Judy Woodruff, David B. Brooks, and David W. Oxtoby
Online
Event |
Gender, Work, and COVID-19
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby, Nannerl Overholser Keohane, Frances McCall Rosenbluth, and Debora L. Spar
Online
Event |
Winter Concert
Cambridge, MA
Event |
Arms Trafficking: Its Past, Present, and Future
Featuring
David A. Hollinger, Brian DeLay, Priya Satia, Daniel Sargent, Ron Hassner, and David W. Oxtoby
Berkeley, CA
Event |
Induction Weekend 2019: Speakers and Videos
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby and Nancy C. Andrews
Cambridge, MA
Event |
Book Launch: The Privileged Poor
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby, Bridget Terry Long, Anthony Jack, and Danielle Allen
Cambridge, MA
Event |
Welcome Reception for Academy President David W. Oxtoby
Featuring
David W. Oxtoby
Cambridge, MA
News
Bulletin
A Night at the Museums
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
Report of the President
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
From the President
Press Release
APR 22, 2021
Honoring Excellence, Electing New Members
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
Report of the President
Academy Article
A Message from President Oxtoby to Academy Staff
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
From the President
Bulletin
From the President
Press Release