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Last modified: Monday, October 22, 2012

IU President Michael A. McRobbie among the newly inducted class of American Academy of Arts and Sciences members

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2012

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Edward G. Carmines, Michael A. McRobbie, and Scott Russell Sanders were among 180 influential artists, scientists, scholars, authors and institutional leaders who were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 6.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious learned societies, and an independent research center that draws from its members' expertise to conduct studies in science and technology policy, global security, the humanities and culture, social policy and education.

"Induction recognizes the achievement and vitality of today's most accomplished individuals who together with the Academy will work to advance the greater good," said Academy President Leslie Berlowitz. "These distinguished men and women are making significant strides in their quest to find solutions to the most pressing scientific, humanistic, and policy challenges of the day."

Participants in the ceremony included: Yale University historian David Blight; actor Daniel Day-Lewis; American baritone Thomas Hampson; Supreme Court advocate Maureen Mahoney; University of Wisconsin biologist Margaret McFall-Ngai; business leader and philanthropist Penny Pritzker; and Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz.

New members who attended the Induction include, in the humanities and the arts: writers Thomas Mallon and Scott Russell Sanders; poet Gerald Stern; illustrator Jerry Pinkney; and choreographer Chistropher Wheeldon.

In the sciences: Stanford university physicist Philip Bucksbaum; University of Oregon volcanologist Katharine Cashman; Princeton University astrophysicist David Spergel; cancer researchers Tyler Jacks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brian Druker of Oregon Health and Science University; and Yale University geneticist Richard Lifton.

In the social sciences: Gallup Senior Scientist Edward Diener; University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales; Northwestern University law professor Shari Diamond; and Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Kathleen McCartney.

In public affairs, civic leadership, philanthropy and business: former Tennessee Governor Philip Bredesen; former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry; journalist Judy Woodruff; philanthropist Sanford Weill; and corporate leaders Kenneth Frazier (Merck & Company), Jeffrey Immelt (General Electric Company), and Edmund Kelly (Liberty Mutual).

College and university presidents include: Carolyn "Biddy" Martin (Amherst College); Michael A. McRobbie (Indiana University); David Oxtoby (Pomona College); and L. Rafael Reif (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

An alphabetical list of the new Academy members is located at: https://www.amacad.org/news/alphalist2012.pdf. The new class listed by discipline is located at: https://www.amacad.org/news/classlist2012.pdf.

Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation. The current membership includes more than 300 Nobel laureates, some 100 Pulitzer Prize winners, and many of the world's most celebrated artists and performers.