Award Ceremony
Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with Dianne Sacho Macleod
Dianne Sachko Macleod
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with Dianne Sacho Macleod
The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2008 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History to Dianne Sachko Macleod for her book, Enchanted Lives, Enchanted Objects - American Women Collectors and the Making of Culture, 1800-1940 (University of California Press, 2008). The award was presented by Mary Patterson McPherson, Executive Officer of the Society.
Dianne Sachko Macleod earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkely in 1981. That same year she joined the faculty of Art History at the University of California, Davis, where she has recently become Professor Emerita. Her other works include Art and the Victorian Middle Class: Money and the Making of Cultural Identity (1996) and (co-edited with Julie F. Codell) Orientalism Transposed: The Impact of the Colonies on British Culture (1998).
Dianne Sachko Macleod’s Enchanted Lives, Enchanted Objects - American Women Collectors and the Making of Culture, 1800-1940 is a scholarly and beautifully illustrated study of 19th-century wealthy American women collectors and their role in shaping the cultural taste of their age and afterwards in painting and the fine arts, with full emphasis on their post-Bellum political involvements, the "gendering" of the modern museum, and the strategies of hiding and later exhibiting their acquisitions. The book is particularly original in its sympathetic and detailed expression of the range of collectors under consideration beyond the familiar and famous horizons.
The Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History is awarded annually to the author whose book exhibits distinguished work in American or European cultural history. The prize honors historian and cultural critic Jacques Barzun, a member of the American Philosophical Society since 1984.
The selection committee consisted of Donald R. Kelley (chair), James Westfall Thompson Professor of History Emeritus, Rutgers University; Glen W. Bowersock, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; and Michael Wood, Charles Barnwell Straut Professor of English, Princeton University.
Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities
The 2009 Moe Prize
Barbara Mittler
The 2009 Moe Prize
The 2009 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities is Barbara Mittler for her paper “Popular Propaganda? Art and Culture in Revolutionary China.” It was presented at the Society’s Spring General Meeting in April 2007 and published in the December 2008 issue of the Society's Proceedings.
In her paper, Barbara Mittler addresses the question why the items of propaganda of Mao’s time, a tragic period of suffering, are now popular in China, and the figure of Mao himself, once a monster, has become a mythical figure. This, she argues, goes against the general response to propaganda that it is to be scorned and mistrusted. From her experience in China especially interviewing artists and musicians, she proposes various reasons. The use of art and music in Maoist propaganda did not reject Chinese tradition but brought it to the countryside (people read Confucius or heard Chinese opera who would never have done so). People found pleasure in this learning experience, many of them able to look beyond the Maoist criticism to the value of the works. Some of her interviewees credited participation in activities during the Great Leap Forward with starting them on careers in music and painting that would never have been open to them otherwise.
The other main point she makes applies to the broader Chinese society as a whole. The glorifying of the Maoist period is a response to the new society that has emerged as China introduces its form of capitalism, with the scene of extravagant wealth falling into a few hands. The new world makes Mao’s dedication to the common man seem a heroic age. This is useful knowledge, a valuable perception of the gut feeling of ordinary people in China to the current regime.
Barbara Mittler, since receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in 1994, has been a member of the Institute of Chinese Studies at the same institution. She was first employed through a project sponsored by the German Research Foundation, later (since 1996) as an Assistant Professor, yet later again (since 1999) as an Associate Professor. Starting in October 2002, she was on research leave, originally for three years, on a Heisenberg Scholarship by the German Research Foundation. During this time, she was affiliated with the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Center for Gender Studies at Marburg University, as well as the Centre d'Etudes de la Chine moderne et contemporaine in Paris. She resumed teaching as a Full Professor at the University of Heidelberg in 2004. Her former desires to become a practicing musician led her to explore Chinese avant-garde music and fueled her passion for Chinese culture. She is a member of the Selection Committee for German Scholarships by the Rhodes Trust, a member of the Senate committee for International Affairs, and a Principal Investigator and Member of the Steering Committee in Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe, Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows.”
Endowed by Edith N. Moe in 1982, the prize honors Henry Allen Moe, paying particular tribute to his firm commitment to the humanities and those who pursue them. Early in his career, Dr. Moe became president of the Guggenheim Foundation, and for the next forty years shaped and ran the organization to become one of the nation’s chief benefactors of creative scholars, scientists, and artists. Dr. Moe served as president of the American Philosophical Society from 1959 to 1970.
The selection committee consisted of Richard Herr (chair), Professor of History Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; Kezia Knauer, Consulting Scholar, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; and Christopher Jones, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and History, Harvard University.
John Frederick Lewis Award
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with Stephen G. Brush
Stephen G. Brush
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with Stephen G. Brush
The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2009 John Frederick Lewis Award to Stephen G. Brush for his book Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930-1970. The award was presented by Mary Patterson McPherson, Executive Officer of the Society.
Stephen Brush worked at he Lawrence Livermore Laboratory from 1959-1965. He then went to Harvard, where he was a member of the Harvard Project Physics and was a lecturer in Physics and the History of Science until 1968. From 1968 to 2006 he was at the University of Maryland in University Park with a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Institute for Physical Science & Technology. He retired in 2006 and holds the title Distinguished University Professor of the History of Science Emeritus.
His book Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930-1970 discusses evolution, Darwin, and natural selection in the twentieth-century Anglo-American biological community. Dr. Brush examines the beliefs and theories of prominent biologists and evolutionists, including Ronald Fisher, Sewall Wright, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and Ernst Mayr.
In 1935 the Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award with funds donated by his widow. The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year.
The selection committee consisted of Glen W. Bowersock (chair), Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; Helen F. North, Centennial Professor Classics Emerita, Swarthmore College; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.
Karl Spencer Lashley Award
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with James L. McGaugh
James L. McGaugh
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg and Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson with James L. McGaugh
The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2009 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to James L. McGaugh. The citation read: “in recognition of his comprehensive study of the biological processes that modulate the formation and consolidation of memory.” The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.
Dr. McGaugh received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1964 joined the faculty at University of California, Irvine, as the founding chair of the Department of Psychobiology. He continues at UC Irvine today as Founding Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and also Research Professor of Psychobiology and Pharmacology. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1989 and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 1992 and has held the presidency of both the American Psychological Society and the Western Psychological Association. Across more than 40 years of experimental work, James McGaugh has investigated the organization of memory and the processes that affect memory. He introduced the technique of post-trial treatment with drugs in order to separate effects on sensory or motor processes from effects on memory. His work has shown that processes operating immediately after a learning event are decisive for determining how well the event is later remembered. In biological studies, he worked out in detail the pathway by which effects that occur after training modulate retention. The pathway begins with release of peripheral hormones from the adrenal medulla and ends at the amygdala. The amygdala is the key structure by which emotion and arousal modulate the strength of memory. This work has elucidated the concept of memory consolidation and the neurobiological processes that regulate consolidation.
The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. His famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience. The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.
The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Research Career Scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor in the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at the Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California.
Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg, Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson and Committee Chairperson Clyde F. Barker with Dr. Keith A. Josephs
Keith A. Josephs
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg, Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson and Committee Chairperson Clyde F. Barker with Dr. Keith A. Josephs
The recipients of the 2009 Judson Daland Prize are Dr. Keith A. Josephs, M.S.T., M.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in recognition of his work on clinical, pathological and imaging correlates of neurodegenerative and other neurological diseases and Dr. Jordan Orange, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Jeffery Modell Diagnostic Center for Primary Immunodeficiency, Attending Physician, Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in recognition of his work on congenital defects of innate immunity and natural killer cells. The award was presented by the Chair of the Selection Committee, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Josephs’ work has focused on correlating clinical manifestations with imaging and pathological findings in patients with neurodegenerative and other neurological diseases. He has made significant contributions to deciphering the complexity of the pathologies underlying neurodegenerative diseases. He has identified markers that allow the prediction of brain pathology in these patients, in order to provide definitive diagnosis and hence appropriate treatment.
He has identified a new disease called neurofilament inclusion body disease (NIBD), a neurodegenerative disorder associated with abnormal deposition of intermediate filaments in the brain. He has also identified a variant of progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease in which abnormal protein deposition within oligodendroglial cells causes destruction of the descending corticospinal tracts. His research has shown significant overlapping of clinical and pathological features between progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration and the frontotemporal lobar degenerations. This has led to better understanding, and reclassification, of much of the entire field of neurodegenerative disorders.
In studies of speech and language disorders Dr. Josephs has demonstrated an association between a motor speech disorder and the presence in the brain of the microtubule associated protein. In addition, he has shown that patients presenting with clinical features of motor neuron disease have a homogeneous underlying pathology. Clinicians worldwide are now using these clinical markers to help predict the underlying pathology, and hence guide treatment of patients with progressive neurodegenerative disorders. He has also utilized cutting edge imaging techniques to demonstrate signatures of a number of different neurodegenerative pathologies thus aiding diagnosis. With these imaging techniques, for example, he showed that the deposition of amyloid in the brain in patients with Alzheimer’s disease is not associated with increased rates of brain atrophy. This finding has significant impact on the utility of markers of disease progression in future treatments targeting beta-amyloid, one of the abnormal proteins in Alzheimer’s disease.
In addition to his significant contributions to the field of neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Josephs has made important patient-oriented research contributions in other neurological diseases. Dr. Josephs identified, for the first time, an important association between dementia and celiac disease. Similarly, based on a single patient encounter which lead him to study Manganese neurotoxicity, he identified an association between exposure to welding fumes and the subsequent development of Parkinsonian features. This finding has had a significant impact on welders by encouraging adequate protection with masks and proper ventilation.
The prize is named for Dr. Judson Daland, born in 1860, a prominent Philadelphia physician and outstanding figure in medical research who left the bulk of his estate to the Society to support research in clinical medicine. The prize recognizes outstanding achievement in clinical investigation, particularly patient-oriented research.
The selection committee consisted of Clyde F. Barker (chair), Donald Guthrie Professor, University of Pennsylvania; John N. Loeb, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Columbia University; Arno Motulsky, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genome Sciences, University of Washington; and Thomas E. Starzl, Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg, Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson and Committee Chairperson Clyde F. Barker with Dr. Jordan Orange
Jordan Orange
APS President Baruch S. Blumberg, Executive Officer Mary Patterson McPherson and Committee Chairperson Clyde F. Barker with Dr. Jordan Orange
The recipients of the 2009 Judson Daland Prize are Dr. Keith A. Josephs, M.S.T., M.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in recognition of his work on clinical, pathological and imaging correlates of neurodegenerative and other neurological diseases and Dr. Jordan Orange, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Jeffery Modell Diagnostic Center for Primary Immunodeficiency, Attending Physician, Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in recognition of his work on congenital defects of innate immunity and natural killer cells. The award was presented by the Chair of the Selection Committee, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jordan Orange is a pioneer in understanding inborn human defects of the innate immune system. In studies of human Natural Killer (NK) cell deficiencies he has found novel connections between inborn defects of the immune system and innate immunity. These have defined paradigms in host defense and given rise to novel therapeutic approaches.
The innate immune system is our initial defense against danger. It protects us from encounters with pathogens that begin at birth and serves as a first line of defense throughout life. Without our innate immune system we would be susceptible to many life-threatening infections and malignancies. So far relevance of the innate immune system to human disease has been demonstrated mainly by congenital deficiencies of innate immunity. It is in these unusual diseases that Dr. Orange has focused his work.
While working toward his Ph.D., Dr. Orange noted that natural killer (NK) cells, which are a major component of the innate immune system, produce cytokines to participate in antiviral defense. During his clinical training in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital Boston, Dr. Orange’s interest in the innate immune system and NK cells continued to flourish. Upon returning to the laboratory, he focused upon defining human deficiencies of NK cells and the innate immune system and in obtaining basic scientific insights from these diseases.
Over the past decade, Dr. Orange has studied human NK cell deficiencies in distinct genetic disorders of immunity. In these diseases, he has been able to characterize NK cell biology on a mechanistic level. For example in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, he has determined that cytoskeletal reorganization is impaired in NK cells leading to defective formation of the immunological synapse, the critical juncture between an immune cell and its target that enables immune function. In Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, this deficiency likely explains the atypical susceptibility to herpes viruses and hematologic malignancies. He also identified a therapeutic means for bypassing the defect and restoring function of the immunological synapse in the cells of an afflicted patient. He has recently used this finding to develop and initiate a phase-1 clinical trial with the ultimate objective of restoring NK cell activity and improving outcome in this difficult disease. He has also identified defects of NK cells and innate immunity in NF-κB essential modulator deficiency. In this rare disease, he has defined a novel connection between rapidly-induced protein function and innate immune defense, an insight that may not have been possible without studying this disorder. Dr. Orange’s work has led him from bedside to bench and bench to bedside and has changed the understanding of NK cells, innate immunity and the complex immunologic diseases in which they are affected.
The prize is named for Dr. Judson Daland, born in 1860, a prominent Philadelphia physician and outstanding figure in medical research who left the bulk of his estate to the Society to support research in clinical medicine. The prize recognizes outstanding achievement in clinical investigation, particularly patient-oriented research.
The selection committee consisted of Clyde F. Barker (chair), Donald Guthrie Professor, University of Pennsylvania; John N. Loeb, Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Columbia University; Arno Motulsky, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Genome Sciences, University of Washington; and Thomas E. Starzl, Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
