Federico Capasso and Alfred Cho recognized for invention, application of laser technology

On March 26, 2024, stem cell biologist Haifan Lin received the Francis Amory Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. First awarded in 1940, the Amory Prize recognizes significant scientific advances in reproductive biology and medical care. The award ceremony included remarks by Yale University President Peter Salovey and Academy President David W. Oxtoby, a reading of the Amory Prize citation by Dean of the Yale School of Medicine Nancy J. Brown, and a presentation by Professor Lin. An edited version of the remarks and presentation follows.

At an Academy event held in Seattle, Washington, author Annie Proulx described some surprising places her research has led: from accusations of plagiarism against Alfred, Lord Tennyson to obsessive lepidopterists and images of long-lost swamplands. Following her opening remarks, she joined Shawn Wong, professor of English, in conversation.

On January 7, 2019, the Academy published the first open-access issue of Dædalus in the journal’s sixty-four-year history. “Access to Justice,” the Winter 2019 issue, is a multidisciplinary examination of the national crisis in legal services, from the challenges of providing quality legal assistance to more people, to the social and economic costs of an of- ten unresponsive legal system, to the opportunities for improvement offered by new technologies, professional innovations, and fresh ways of thinking about the crisis.

The Global Security and International Affairs program area draws on the expertise of a broad range of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars to foster knowledge and promote innovative and evidence-based policies to address crucial issues affecting the international community. Projects underway in this area engage with pressing strategic, development, and moral questions that underpin relations among people, communities, and states worldwide. Each initiative embraces a broad conception of security as the interaction among human, national, and global security imperatives. Project recommendations move beyond the idea of security as the absence of war toward higher aspirations of collective peace, development, and justice at all levels of society.

2110th Stated Meeting | January 18, 2023 | Virtual Event | Morton L. Mandel Conversation

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson, members of the Academy's Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, write that the recent college admissions scandal represents a small fraction of college admissions and should not distract from persistent inequalities in higher education access.

On February 4, 2015, Andrea Roth and Franklin Zimring participated in a conversation at the University of California, Berkeley, on police use of lethal force against civilians.

The humanities, arts, and culture are woven through virtually every Academy program, where artists and humanists add interdisciplinary breadth to projects in science, democracy, and security. However, the Academy also undertakes projects that put humanities, arts, and culture at the forefront, strengthening their practice and highlighting their importance to all aspects of the nation’s thriving intellectual life. These projects call attention to the role the arts and humanities play in enriching the growth and vitality of individuals, communities, and the nation.

Academy member Denis Feeney has spent the last few years trying to understand why the Romans developed a literature in their Latin language, when the balance of historical probability was against this happening.

A new lithograph by the U.S. preeminent painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly now hangs in the atrium of the House of the Academy. In celebration of the Academy’s 225th anniversary, Kelly donated 25 signed prints of his “Sunflower II” from a limited edition of 60 lithographs. The remaining prints have been designated by Kelly to be used as gifts of appreciation to donors who make lead contributions to the Academy’s endowment and capital funds during the 225th anniversary period.

Eric Liu, cochair of the Academy's Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, speaks about how to prepare citizens in a democracy.

Noteworthy

Academy Convenes Educators, Donors, and Evaluation Specialists

Members Elected in 2021, by Class & Section

On December 12, 2016, at the Century Association in New York, the Academy hosted the Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture on “Communicating Science through Art” with Diane Ackerman and Alan Alda. This program served as the Academy’s 2048th Stated Meeting and included an introduction by Geneva Overholser.

Randy W. Schekman moderated a panel discussion on consensus and controversy in science with Jennifer Doudna, Richard A. Muller, and Pamela Ronald.