American Academy Inducts 230th Class of Scholars, Scientists, Artists, Civic, Corporate, and Philanthropic Leaders

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences will induct some of the world's most distinguished scholars, artists, and institutional leaders here on Saturday, October 9. The induction ceremony is part of a three-day series of events to officially welcome the 230th class of new Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members into the Academy.

Five members of the new class will address their colleagues: the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, G. Wayne Clough; renowned cancer researcher and Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, Susan Desmond-Hellmann; veteran diplomat and President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Robert L. Gallucci; 15-term congressman and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jim Leach; and former Federal Reserve System Vice Chair and current CEO of financial services company TIAA-CREF, Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.; actor and director Liev Schreiber, actor and author Alan Alda, and federal judge Diane Wood will also participate in the program.

"The Induction ceremony celebrates the Academy's mission and the accomplishments of its newly elected members," said President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Berlowitz. "Through three centuries of service, the Academy and its Fellows have been dedicated to intellectual leadership and constructive action in America and the world."

The weekend events also include a program celebrating the arts and humanities that features new Fellows including actor, musician and author John Lithgow; novelist Marilynne Robinson; poet Henri Cole; conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies; and violinist Arnold Steinhardt; as well as a symposium on the Internet with, among others, Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie; Archivist of the United States David Ferriero; and Marjorie Scardino, CEO of international media company Pearson PLC.

The 210 new Fellows and 18 Foreign Honorary Members are leaders in research, scholarship, business, the arts, and public affairs. Among the inductees are Nobel laureate economist Myron Scholes; demographer and U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves; IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisiano; Ford Foundation President Luis Ubinas; television journalist Christiane Amanpour; and university presidents Joseph Aoun (Northeastern University); Gene Block (University of California, Los Angeles); and John DeGioia (Georgetown University).

Other new Fellows who will be inducted are astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, who discovered more than half of the currently known extrasolar planets; chemist Joseph Francisco, whose research revolutionized our understanding of chemical processes in the atmosphere; Evelyn Hu, a pioneer in the fabrication of nanoscale electronic and photonic devices; Timothy Ley, who led the group that sequenced the first human cancer genome; theologian Harvey Cox, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Howe; and U.S. Special Envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth

A complete list of new members is available on the Academy's website at: http://www.amacad.org/news/a2z10.pdf

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Current Academy research focuses on science and technology policy; global security; social policy; the humanities and culture; and education. With headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Academy's work is advanced by its 4,600 elected members, who are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business and public affairs from around the world. (www.amacad.org)

SOURCE American Academy of Arts & Sciences

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