William H. Gates, Sr., Frank Thomson Leighton, Carolyn R. Bertozzi, and Michael Wood Speak at Induction Ceremony Sherrill Milnes Performs

On April 18, 2024, Kwame Anthony Appiah received the Academy’s Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies. Established in 1975 as the Award for Humanistic Studies and renamed in 2017 in honor of musicologist Don M. Randel, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to humanistic scholarship. The award ceremony included opening remarks from Academy President David W. Oxtoby, a reading of the prize citation by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., acceptance remarks from Professor Appiah, and a conversation between Professor Appiah and journalist Margaret Sullivan. An edited transcript of the program follows.

Patrick C. Walsh, a renowned urologist who pioneered work in the understanding and treatment of prostate cancer, was honored with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ prestigious Francis Amory Prize here on March 14. Given by the Academy since 1940, the prize recognizes major advances in reproductive biology and medical care.

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

Five emerging poets of exceptional promise and distinguished achievement to receive Academy prize in honor of May Sarton.

The 2015 class includes Pulitzer Prize-winner Holland Cotter, singer-songwriter Judy Collins, Nike co-founder Philip Knight, Nobel Prize-winner Brian Kobilka, Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and novelist Tom Wolfe.

Frank Wilczek discussed the modern concept of substance and the nature of the Higgs particle following an introduction given by Jerome Friedman.