APS Member News 2022

December 2022

Kamal Bawa (APS 2019) received the Global Lifetime Service Award from the Balipara Foundation

For ‘spirit of innovation,’ Vijay Kumar (APS 2018) among three from Penn named National Academy of Inventors Fellows

A rediscovery of the ancient world’: Anthony Grafton (APS 1993) discusses new book The Art of Discovery

President Ruth Simmons (APS 1997) completes 5 years of Dynamic Leadership at Prairie View A&M University

November 2022

Venki Ramakrishnan (APS 2020) receives Order of Merit

October 2022

Louise Glück (APS 2014) has published a new book, Marigold and Rose

Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APS 1997) will speak at the 2022 Stanfield Conversation, covering “Technology, Media Fragmentation, and the Crisis of Democracy in America

Orhan Pamuk (APS 2018) has published a new book, Nights of Plague

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Ben S. Bernanke (APS 2006), the former Federal Reserve chair

Carol Greider (APS 2016) to receive Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics

Jianguo "Jack" Liu (APS 2015) has been elected to the prestigious Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) will discuss her book “On Juneteenth” at The University of Scranton’s Values In Action Lecture

Richard A. Meserve (APS 2002) has been selected as the recipient of the Joseph A. Burton Forum Award by the American Physical Society

David Tatel (APS 2007) will give the Edward Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurist lecture at University of Chicago

The SJU Nardi Symposium on Law and Justice will include the talk Civil Rights Queen: A Conversation with Tomiko Brown-Nagin (APS 2021)

Barbara J. Grosz (APS 2003), Higgins Research Professor of Natural Sciences at Harvard University, will be giving the lecture "Fostering Responsible Computing Research"

David A. Tirrell (APS 2019) will be the featured School of Molecular Sciences’ Eyring Lecture Series speaker at Arizona State University

Frank Wilczek (APS 2005) has won the Templeton Prize

Villanova University is pleased to award the 2022 Mendel Medal to Dr. William Newsome (APS 2011) from Stanford University

Darren Walker (APS 2021) Preaches at Church of the Heavenly Rest

Jill Abramson (APS 2012), the first woman to direct the New York Times, spoke on The Legacy of Women

September 2022

Angus Deaton (APS 2014) explains how COVID-19, deaths of despair, and a slow in progress on cardiovascular diseases led to a drop in life expectancy.

The Mendel Medal will be awarded to Dr. William Thomas Newsome, III (APS 2011) from Stanford University, for his contributions toward improved understanding of systems and cognitive neuroscience

David Hollinger (APS 2017) has published a new book, Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular

Kathryn Sikkink (APS 2013) will moderate "Explaining Public-Sector Union Mobilization: A Mixed-Methods Approach with Evidence from Argentina"

Rebecca Richards-Kortum (APS 2017) will deliver the lecture "Designing and Delivering Medical Devices to Help Every Newborn, Everywhere Survive and Thrive"


APS member John W. O'Malley (APS 1997) died on September 11, 2022, in Baltimore, MD, at the age of 95. Father O’Malley was known for his scholarly works on the Catholic Church’s last four ecumenical councils as well as his many writings interpreting the 20th-century history of the Society of Jesus. He was an incredibly active member (serving, among other ways, as Vice President from 2010-16) and won the Society's Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History in 1993 and Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities in 2013.

APS member A. Bruce Mainwaring (APS 2004) died on September 6, 2022, in Bryn Mawr, PA, at the age of 95. A highly successful businessman and philanthropist, Mainwaring had a lifelong interest in the sciences and was able to maintain an active interest in scholarly institutions, especially the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

APS member Saul A. Kripke (APS 2004) died on September 15, 2022, in New York, NY, at the age of 81.  Kripke was well-known for his work in philosophy of language and logic, with his Naming and Necessity widely recognized as one of the most important works of 20th Century analytic philosophy.

APS member Maarten Schmidt (APS 2000) died on September 17, 2022, in Fresno, CA, at the age of 92.  Schmidt was well known for his 1963 discovery of quasars—extremely bright and distant cosmic objects powered by active supermassive black holes.

APS member George A. Kennedy (APS 1984) died on July 28,2022, in Spring, TX, at the age of 94. Kennedy was a scholar of classical rhetoric and literature.

August 2022

Lawrence Tribe (APS 2010) was recently interviewed about the Supreme Court by the Washington Post


APS member David McCullough (APS 2004) died on August 7, 2022, in Hingham, MA, at the age of 89.  He was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past.

July 2022

Barry Mazur (APS 2001) Awarded 2022 Chern Medal

Jonathan Lear has published "Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life"


APS member Richard Taruskin (APS 1998) died on July 1, 2022, in Oakland, CA, at the age of 77.  He was a commanding musicologist and public intellectual whose polemical scholarship and criticism upended conventional classical music history.

APS member Hans Frauenfelder (APS 1981) died on July 10, 2022, in Tesuque, NM, at the age of 99. He was an American physicist and biophysicist notable for his discovery of perturbed angular correlation (PAC) in 1951.

APS member Ho-Wang Lee (APS 1998) died on July 5, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea, at the age of 94.  He was a virologist who isolated the pathogen behind a deadly form of haemorrhagic fever.
 

June 2022

Lessons Learned from the Life of Constance Baker Motley: A Conversation with Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin (APS 2021) to Celebrate The Law Library of Congress’ 190th Anniversary on July 14

Johns Hopkins to host conversation with Donna Shalala (APS 2009), former HHS secretary and member of Congress on June 19

Laurie H. Glimcher (APS 2019) named to Modern Healthcare’s 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives Class of 2022

Frances H. Arnold (APS 2018) and Evelyn Higginbotham (APS 2009) will receive honorary degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jane Carol Ginsburg (APS 2013) was appointed "Ambassador of the University of Salento"

Exo Therapeutics Appoints Laura Kiessling (APS 2017) to Scientific Advisory Board


APS member Dale W. Jorgenson (APS 1998) died on June 10, 2022, in Cambridge, MA, at the age of 89.  He conducted groundbreaking research on information technology and economic growth, energy and the environment, tax policy and investment behavior, and applied econometrics.

APS member Anne Cutler (APS 2007) died on June 7, 2022, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, at the age of 77.  She was a world renowned pioneer whose contributions advanced the scientific understanding of spoken language processing, and shaped the field as it is known today.

APS member Roger Newland Shepard (APS 1999) died on May 30, 2022, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 93.  Awarded the National Medal of Science, Roger Shepard, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford, introduced techniques for quantifying mental processes.
 

May 2022

The following members were elected to the National Academy of Sciences:

  • Kamaljit S. Bawa (APS 2019)
  • France A. Córdova (APS 2022)
  • Paul DiMaggio (APS 2016)

Tracy P. Palandjian (APS 2022) was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Claudia Goldin (APS 2015) received an honorary degree from Dartmouth.

ProPublica announced Friday the appointment of Tomiko Brown-Nagin (APS 2021) and Carrie Lozano to its board of directors.

GSD names Danielle Allen (APS 2015) 2022 Class Day Speaker

TMT International Observatory names Robert P. Kirshner (APS 2005) new executive director

The Ecology Society of America honors Jianguo "Jack" Liu (APS 2015) as an "eminent ecologist."

Jeffrey Hamburger will give the talk "Flesh and Fabric: the Raiment of the Passion in a Crucifixion by Pietro Lorenzetti" on May 19

Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander (APS 2020) is one of the TIME 100 most influential people of 2022

Architect Billie Tsien (APS 2017) to Receive Honorary Doctorate at the Boston Architectural College’s 2022 Commencement

Linda Greenhouse (APS 2001) offers insight into a transformed court in "What’s Really Going On With the Supreme Court?"

Michael Bloomberg (APS 2015) Plans a $242 Million Investment in Clean Energy

Oxford University will be awarding honorary degrees to William Chester Jordan (APS 2000), Jane Lubchenco (APS 1998), Theda Skocpol (APS 2006), and Susan Solomon (APS 2008). 


APS member Ben R. Mottelson (APS 2011) died on May 13, 2022, in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the age of 95. He shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries of forces that can distort the shape of an atomic nucleus, with implications for human-made nuclear fission.

APS member Michael Sela (APS 1995) died on May 27, 2022, in Rehovot, Israel, at the age of 98.  He was a renowned immunologist who served as the sixth president of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

APS member Richard Herr (APS 1993) died on May 29, 2022, in Berkeley, California, at the age of 100.  Dr. Herr was one of the historians who contributed decisively to the renewal of Spanish historiography.

April 2022

Frantz Grenet (APS 2017) has been elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres.

Frans de Waal (APS 2005) appeared on Sean Carroll's (APS 2017) Mindscape podcast

Éva Tardos (APS 2020) was named ACM Athena Lecturer For Technical and Mentoring Contributions

Eikon Therapeutics Announces the Election of Kenneth C. Frazier (APS 2018) to Its Board of Directors

Joy Harjo to address University of Tennessee, Knoxville Class of 2022 and receive an honorary degree

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, (APS 2003) Transformative Leader in Higher Education, to Speak at Drexel’s 2022 Commencement

Stephen Breyer (APS 2004) to be honored with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal by Monticello and the University of Virginia

Mark Morris (APS 2008) - “L’Allegro” returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where it had its United States premiere in 1990

Tony Hunter (APS 2006) Honored with 2022 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Patrick V. Kirch (APS 1998) will be one of three individuals honored at the 47th annual Living Treasures of Hawaiʻi virtual event on May 22. The award recognizes Kirch for his significant contributions to the field of Polynesian archaeology and its positive impact on the quality of life in the local community.

Glenn Loury (APS 2011), distinguished economist and scholar, selected as a 2022 Bradley Prize winner

The speech made by Peter Dervan (APS 2002) as he received the Priestly Medal is now available.

The 2022 Haueter Award is awarded to Dr. Martine Rothblatt (APS 2008), founder, and chair of the board of United Therapeutics. (Presentation on YouTube)

Lorraine Daston (APS 2017) will give the lecture “The Origins of International Governance in Science

Larry Bartels (APS 2019) honored with SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Frans de Waal’s (APS 2005) new book “Different” is a fascinating study of gender among monkeys and apes.

Jed Buchwald (APS 2011) will be giving the lecture “Isaac Newton and the Origin of Civilization” on May 13 


APS member Sidney Altman (APS 1990) died on April 5, 2022, in Rockleigh, NJ, at the age of 82. He shared a Nobel for finding that RNA was not just a carrier of genetic information but could also trigger life-changing chemical reactions in cells.

APS member Richard J. Franke (APS 2011) died on April 15, 2022, in New York City, at the age of 90.  Richard Franke served as the chief executive officer of John Nuveen & Company for 22 years.

March 2022

The 2022 Holberg Prize is awarded to Sheila Sen Jasanoff (APS 2021) for her pioneering research in the field of Science and Technology Studies.

Anthony S. Fauci (APS 2001) will speak at the May 7 “comeback ceremony,” at Michigan State University, for 2020 graduates who didn’t have an in-person commencement because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He and Thomas Holt (APS 2016) will receive honorary degrees.

Barnard College has received the largest gift in its more than 130-year history - a $55 million donation from former Merck CEO P. Roy Vagelos (APS 1993) and his wife Diana.

Join WHYY and PBS for a live, virtual discussion on Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns (APS 2011), featuring clips from the two-part series.

As Joy Harjo (APS 2021) concludes her appointment as US Poet Laureate, she joins poet and Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander (APS 2020) in conversation about the role of poetry in our current moment, and how the discipline of writing poetry has shaped the lives of both women.

Andrew Delbanco (APS 2013), Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and president of the Teagle Foundation, will present three lectures on the theme “What Do Our Colleges and Universities Owe to Black Americans?”

Prof. Wendy Freedman (APS 2007) named speaker for UChicago’s 2022 Convocation celebration

Walter Isaacson (APS 2005), author, professor, executive, and television host (among other roles) will receive Research!America’s Isadore Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion for his commitment to bringing public attention to revolutionary figures in science and technology.

Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels (APS 2018) Named Chair of IDI’s International Advisory Council

The Department of Chinese Language and Literature organized an academic conversation entitled “Cultural Memory and Early Chinese Civilization” with Professor Martin Kern (APS 2015) and Professor Zhang Yue.

Dr. Roger Myerson (APS 2019), an internationally-recognized economist and 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize recipient in Economic Sciences, offered an informal guest lecture with Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) students and faculty in the Defense Analysis (DA) department, Feb. 28.

Physicist S. James Gates (APS 2012) to present virtual talk as part of J. Mark Sowers Distinguished Lecture Series

The Marine Biological Laboratory announced the decision to name the directorship of the Semester in Environmental Science program the Jerry M. Melillo (APS 2005) Directorship in Environmental Science.

During the 2022 Ted Belytschko Lecture, Harvard professor Joanna Aizenberg (APS 2016) spoke about HAIRS. No, not the hair on top of your head, but Hydrogel-Actuated Integrated Responsive Structures.

Harold Hongju Koh (APS 2007) will speak at the Nelson Mandela Auditorium in the FedEx Global Education Center on Thursday, March 24th at 5:30 PM ET: “Suing Russia for Ukraine at the World Court.”


APS member Howard C. Berg (APS 2002) died on December 30, 2021, in Cambridge, MA, at the age of 87.  Berg, through five decades of study of bacterial motile behavior, helped establish foundations for modern quantitative biology.

February 2022

Jacqueline K. Barton (APS 1999) has been named the recipient of this year’s Theodore William Richards Medal Award by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Danielle Allen (APS 2015) will be giving the talk Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus on March 16.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) will be the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Commencement Ceremony.

Alondra Nelson (APS 2020) will perform the duties of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

Carol Greider (APS 2016), recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, will deliver the next Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture on Feb. 24.

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) of Harvard University will deliver the 2021-22 Rutman Distinguished Lecture on the American Presidency on Thursday, April 7, 2022. She also spoke on Feb. 10 at James Branch Cabell Library.

Howard Gardner (APS 2006) and Wendy Fischman will give the talk The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be in March.

Mary Beard (APS 2012) will give a talk on her book Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern in March.

John P. Holdren (APS 2015) to Receive Public Welfare Medal – National Academy's Most Prestigious Award

Andrew Knoll (APS 1997) awarded the 2022 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences by the Royal Swedish Academy

University of Pennsylvania doctors, including Carl June (APS 2020), say cancer patients cured a decade after gene therapy.

Michael Dine, in conversation with Lisa Randall (APS 2010), will present the Harvard Science Book Talk: "This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality"

Patricia and Stephen Benkovic (APS 2002) have created The Patricia and Stephen Benkovic Research Initiative as a funding mechanism designed to directly support fresh, bold research projects at the interface of chemistry and the life sciences.

Lonnie G. Bunch III (APS 2020) will be recognized with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding contributions to the public understanding of the maritime experience of enslaved Africans taken to America and the subsequent relationship of African Americans with the sea.


APS member Sir David Cox (APS 1990) died on January 18, 2022, in Oxford, UK, at the age of 97. Sir David was an internationally renowned statistician who made outstanding contributions to research in the fields of statistics and applied probability, including the development of the Cox Model, which is widely used in medicine when analysing patients’ chances of survival.

APS member Richard S. Dunn (APS 1998) died on January 24, 2022, in Winston-Salem, NC, at the age of 93. He was an early Americanist, founder and first director of the what is now the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and served as Co-Executive Officer, with Mary Maples Dunn, of the American Philosophical Society

APS member Mireille Delmas-Marty (APS 2021) died on February 12, 2022, in Saint-Germain-Laval, Loire, France, at the age of 80. She was Professor at the College de France and member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

APS member Paul Farmer (APS 2018) died on February 21, 2022, in Butaro, Rwanda, at the age of 62.  He was a physician, anthropologist and humanitarian who gained global acclaim for his work delivering high-quality health care to some of the world’s poorest people.

APS member Charles G. Dempsey (APS 1998) died on February 22, 2022, in Washington, DC, at the age of 84.  Specializing in Renaissance and Baroque art, Dempsey was a rigorous and exacting scholar and mentor to several generations of students. He is survived by his wife, APS Vice President Elizabeth Cropper.
 

January 2022

Shirley Tilghman (APS 2000) wins award for ‘exemplary contributions to the genetics community and society

Olufunmilayo Olopade (APS 2011) received the prestigious William L. McGuire Award for transformative breast cancer research.

Nicholas Canny (APS 2007) has published "Imagining Ireland's Pasts: Early Modern Ireland Through the Centuries."

Opera Colorado and The Stanley Hotel Present an Immersive Weekend Exploring composer Paul Moravec (APS 2010) and librettist Mark Campbell's Operatic Adaptation of The Shining in February.

Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella (APS 2018) of Canada’s Supreme Court Named Mulligan Distinguished Visiting Professor at Fordham Law

The University of Chicago's Marine Biological Laboratory proudly announces the decision to name the directorship of the Semester in Environmental Science program the Jerry M. Melillo (APS 2005) Directorship in Environmental Science, an endowed fund.


APS member Jonathan M. Brown (APS 1988) died on January 17, 2022, in Princeton, NJ, at the age of 83.  Jonathan Brown was a pioneering art historian who brought the study of both Spanish and Viceregal Mexican art to wide public and academic attention with his teaching, voluminous writing and exhibition curating, from the 1960s until the present decade.

APS member Beatrice Mintz (APS 1982) died on January 3, 2022, in Philadelphia, PA, at the age of 100.  She was an American embryologist who contributed to the understanding of genetic modification, cellular differentiation and cancer, particularly melanoma. Mintz was a pioneer of genetic engineering techniques, and was among the first scientists to generate both chimeric and transgenic mammals.

APS member Edward O. Wilson (APS 1976) died on December 26, 2021, in Burlington, MA, at the age of 92. A Harvard professor for 46 years, he was an expert on insects and explored how natural selection and other forces could influence animal behavior. He then applied his research to humans.

APS member Franklin A. Thomas (APS 2006) died on December 22, 2021, in New York, NY, at the age of 87.  He rose from working-class Brooklyn to become the first Black person to run a major American philanthropy, and he revitalized it, shifting its focus to poverty and education.

APS member Sara McLanahan (APS 2016) died on December 31, 2021, in Princeton, NJ, at the age of 81. She was an American sociologist. She is known for her work on the family as a major institution in the American stratification system.

APS member Jonathan Dermot Spence (APS 1992) died on December 25, 2021, in West Haven, CT, at the age of 85.  His classes at Yale and well-regarded books explored China’s vast history through details that illuminated bigger pictures and themes.

APS member Thomas E. Lovejoy (APS 1999) died on December 25, 2021, in McLean, VA, at the age of 80.  His ambitious, long-running project in Brazil explored the impact of deforestation on animals and plants — and how to deal with it.

APS member Joan Didion (APS 2006) died on December 23, 2021, in New York, NY, at the age of 87.  She established a distinctive voice in American fiction before turning to political reporting and screenplay writing.

The following Members were found to have passed at an earlier date in our annual membership check:

APS member Jean-Michel Dubernard (APS 2010) died on July 10, 2021, in France, at the age of 80.  Jean-Michel Dubernard was a medical doctor specializing in transplant surgery who served as a Deputy in the French National Assembly.

APS member Chie Nakane (APS 1977) died on October 12, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan, at the age of 94. Chie Nakane was a Japanese anthropologist and Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology at the University of Tokyo.

Access

APS Member News 2021

December 2021

Philip Kitcher (APS 2018) has been awarded the Carl Gustav Hempel Award for 2020 from the Philosophy of Science Association. Additionally he has published two books this year: Moral Progress and The Main Enterprise of the World: Rethinking Education.

Claire L. Parkinson (APS 2010) was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame and received NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, the highest recognition awarded by NASA to its employees.


APS Member Robert Jervis (APS 2014), the Adlai E. Stevenson professor of international politics, passed away from lung cancer complications in his home on Dec. 9, 2021. He was 81 years old.

APS Member Michael E. Fisher (APS 1993) died on November 26, 2021, in Silver Springs, MD, at the age of 90.

November 2021

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has named Louise Richardson (APS 2017), currently the vice chancellor of Oxford University, as its next president, succeeding Vartan Gregorian who died in April.

Michael Fried (APS 2003), Johns Hopkins Academy professor and professor emeritus of the humanities, gave the Johns Hopkins Academy Lecture titled "All or Nothing: Manet in the 1860s."

Cora Diamond (APS 2007), a distinguished philosopher, received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago.

Mark Thompson (APS 2017) and Maria  Ressa will co-chair the board of the new initiative, called International Fund for Public Interest Media, beginning Oct. 1.


APS member Frederik Willem de Klerk (APS 1994) died on November 11, 2021, in Cape Town, at the age of 85.  As president of South Africa he dismantled the apartheid system that he and his ancestors had helped put in place.

October 2021

Harvard faculty member Danielle Allen (APS 2015) to speak in Viterbo ethics series.

Vinton G. Cerf (APS 2008), vice president and chief internet evangelist for Google, will speak at Hood College.

National Gallery of Art Board of Trustees Elects Indra Nooyi (APS 2021) as New Trustee and David Rubenstein (APS 2019) as Chairman.

Ruth J. Simmons (APS 1997) gave the Washington Post Live lecture Race in America: HBCUs with Ruth J. Simmons, PhD.

Andrea M. Ghez (APS 2012), 2020 Nobel Prize Winner and Astrophysics Expert, Named Honorary Member of Zonta International.


APS member Prof. Dr Jack David Dunitz (APS 1997) died on September 12, 2021, in Switzerland, at the age of 98.  He is credited with shaping contemporary structural chemistry and was renowned as a teacher and mentor.

APS member Colin L. Powell (APS 1998) died on October 18, 2021, in Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of 84.  He was an American politician, diplomat, and four-star general who served as the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005.

APS member Ronald S. Stroud (APS 2005) died on October 7, 2021, in Berkeley, California, at the age of 88. Ron Stroud was one of the world's leading Greek epigraphists.

Marjorie McCarty, a beloved colleague and the widow of Rockefeller’s Maclyn McCarty, has passed away at the age of 94. We have lost a cherished, long-time member of our community.

September 2021

Giorgio Parisi (APS 2013) won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales."

Joy Harjo (APS 2021) released her second memoir, entitled Poet Warrior.

The program Sandra Day O'Connor: The First has appeared on PBS, highlighting Sandra Day O'Connor (APS 1992), with commentary by Linda Greenhouse (APS 2001).

Mary Beth Norton (APS 2010) wins 2021 George Washington Prize for “1774: The Long Year of Revolution”

Jeffrey Gordon (APS 2014) is a recipient of this year’s Balzan Prize for his role in founding the field of human gut microbiome research and revolutionizing the understanding of gut microbes and their roles in human health and disease.

Anne-Marie Slaughter (APS 2011) explains what she has learned from a long career of public service in her new book, Renewal: From Crisis to Transformation in Our Lives, Work, and Politics.

Indra Nooyi (APS 2021), former CEO of PepsiCo, narrates her rise to the top in her new book, My Life In Full: Work, Family, and Our Future.

Kara Walker (APS 2018) will be part of a virtual discussion on September 27.

Giorgio Parisi (APS 2013) has been named a Clarivate Citation Laureate.

Pamela Björkman (APS 2002) has been named the recipient of the 2021 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, a major international award recognizing outstanding women scientists and presented by The Rockefeller University.

Jianguo “Jack” Liu (APS 2015) of Michigan State University, has been honored with the World Sustainability Award for his leadership in integrating the needs of both humans and nature and succeeding in having the work translated into policy and practice. 

August 2021

Paul Alivisatos (APS 2015), the incoming president of the University of Chicago, received the Priestley Medal at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting.

Geoffrey R. Stone (APS 2010) is one of the recipients of this year’s Norman Maclean Faculty Award of the University of Chicago.


APS member Hugo Freund Sonnenschein (APS 2001) died on July 15, 2021, in Chicago, IL, at the age of 80. He was a renowned economist and longtime university administrator who led the University of Chicago through a transformational period as its 11th president.

APS member Ying-shih Yu (APS 2004) died on August 1, 2021, in Princeton, NJ, at the age of 91.  He was a historian of China who taught at Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities; his books were banned by the ruling Communist Party in 2014 after he expressed support for pro-democracy activism.

APS member Gary B. Nash (APS 2000) died on July 29, 2021, in California, at the age of 88.  He was a leading UCLA scholar revered for his role in shaping K-12 American history curricula and admired for standing his ground — even in a public entanglement with the wife of a U.S. vice president.

APS member Noel M. Swerdlow (APS 1988) died on July 24, 2021, in California, at the age of 79. Dr. Swerdlow was famous for his approach to studying the works of ancient scientists, which held that modern scholars should be able to understand the mathematics used by ancient writers—from the Babylonians to Kepler. His translations of and commentary on 16th-century astronomer Copernicus, and other astronomers from antiquity to the Renaissance, are foundational texts still read around the world.

July 2021

Jack Szostak (APS 2012) will join the faculty of the University of Chicago as University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the College.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) has announced that it will honor Peter B. Dervan (APS 2002), Caltech's Bren Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, with the 2022 Priestley Medal, the society's highest honor.

Paul Alivisatos (APS 2015) has been named the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the College, effective Sept. 1 at the University of Chicago, where he's the incoming President.

Craig Calhoun (APS 2012) joins Melikian Center as interim director.


APS member Purnell W. Choppin (APS 1988) died on July 3, 2021, at home in Washington, DC, at the age of 91.  He was a physician, virologist, and scientific administrator who performed pioneering research on viruses at The Rockefeller University and later exerted a powerful influence on biomedical research as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

APS member Steven Weinberg (APS 1982) died on July 23, 2021, in Austin, TX, at the age of 88.  His discoveries deepened understanding of the basic forces at play in the universe, and he took general readers back to its dawn in his book “The First Three Minutes.”

June 2021

Noted researcher and scientific leader Jack E. Dixon (APS 2010) retires. In a career spanning almost half-a-century, Dixon pioneered new discoveries and advanced science at both UC San Diego and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Harvard conferred seven honorary degrees, including to Frances H. Arnold (APS 2018), Arlie R. Hochschild (APS 2021), and Margaret H. Marshall (APS 2017).

Billie Tsien (APS 2017) was appointed by President Biden to the Commission of Fine Arts.

Read Mellon President Elizabeth Alexander’s (APS 2020) feature in the June issue of National Geographic.

Sarah B. Pomeroy (APS 2014), was interviewed by Lynn Sherr about her book, Benjamin Franklin, Swimmer (American Philosophical Society Press 2021)

NBAA present the Meritorious Award to Martine Rothblatt (APS 2008).

Yo-Yo Ma (APS 1999) and long-time musical partner Emanuel Ax (APS 2009) have released Hope Amid Tears on Sony Classical.

Danielle Allen (APS 2015) is running for Governor of Massachusetts.

Jianguo "Jack" Liu (APS 2015) received the Gunnerus Award in Sustainability Science.

Pioneering climate change researcher Warren Washington (APS 2003) receives honorary degree

Veerabhadran Ramanathan (APS 2006) will receive the Blue Planet Prize, the international environmental award sponsored by Japan’s Asahi Glass Foundation.


APS member Lewis Wopert (APS 2002) died on January 28, 2021.  A charismatic advocate of his science, Lewis originated the concept of positional information to explain the formation of pattern in the development of an embryo. His work played a central role in building the field.

APS member Jean D. Wilson (APS 2000) died on June 13, 2021, in Dallas, TX, at the age of 88.  Dr. Wilson made scientific discoveries that led to effective prostate treatments, insights into sexual differentiation.

May 2021

Stephen Benkovic (APS 2002) was elected a Foreign Member of Royal Society.

Roger Ferguson, Jr. (APS 2016) to deliver Tuck Investiture Address.

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) to be Dartmouth Class of 2021 Commencement speaker.

Politics and Prose will be hosting lectures by several APS Members

Robert B Pippin (APS 2009) will discuss Philosophy by Other Means. He will be joined in conversation by Jensen Suther.

SCC Justice Rosalie Abella (APS 2018) will serve as Pisar visiting professor at Harvard Law School for three years.

Claire L. Parkinson (APS 2010) receives the 2020 Roger Revelle Medal.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) acclaimed infectious disease expert will deliver the 67th Beatty Lecture virtually on Friday, October 1, 2021.

Dr. Jane Goodall (APS 1988) wins 2021 Templeton Prize.


APS member Sally Falk Moore (APS 2005) died on May 2, 2021, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 97.  Professor Moore was a giant in the fields of legal and political anthropology. She did her major fieldwork in Tanzania and published extensively on cross-cultural, comparative legal theory.

APS member Marye Anne Fox (APS 1996) died on May 9, 2021, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 73. She was a tough-minded chemist who guided UC San Diego through eight often difficult years of growth as the school’s chancellor and was awarded the National Medal of Science for her insights about sustainable energy.

April 2021

Regna Darnell (APS 2004) has won two awards and has three publications coming out:

  • She won the 2020 Lifetime Service Award from the Women’s Caucus, Canadian Anthropology Society
  • She won the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Ethnohistory
  • She published History of Anthropology: A Critical Window on the Discipline in North America (2021)
  • She will publish Method and Theory in the History of Anthropology (2022)
  • She edited the forthcoming Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) will soon publish On Juneteenth.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. (APS 1995) was named Don M. Randel Award recipient at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Roger W. Ferguson Jr. (APS 2016) will join the Council on Foreign Relations as the Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics starting on May 10, 2021.

Jeffrey Gordon (APS 2014) has been awarded the 2021 Kober Medal, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of gut microbiome research.

Laurence Tribe (APS 2010) named to Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court.

Judith Butler (APS 2007) will be giving the lecture "Debt, Guilt, Responsibility, Obligation."

Retired Mass. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall (APS 2017) to receive 2021 Bolch Prize.

Ruth J. Simmons (APS 1997) will speak at Princeton’s Baccalaureate ceremony.

Benjamin Isaac (APS 2003) has published Empire and Ideology in the Graeco-Roman World.

Steven Weinberg (APS 1982) and Simon Levin (APS 2003) will be presenters at the University of Texas at Arlington’s College of Science's Science Week.

Rosalie Silberman Abella (APS 2018), justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will serve as Pisar visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School, effective July 1, 2022 for a three-year term.


APS Member Robert L. Herbert (APS 1993) died on December 17, 2020, in Northampton, MA, at the age of 91.  He was a pioneering scholar of 19th-century art whose 1988 history of Impressionism, viewed through a social lens, delivered a robust transfusion to the study of that period.

APS Member Vartan Gregorian (APS 1985) died on April 16, 2021, in Manhattan, at the age of 87. He was best known for resurrecting the New York Public Library from a fiscal and morale crisis in the 1980s.

APS Member Charles M. Geschke (APS 2012) died on April 16, 2021, in Los Altos, California, at the age of 81. He was a computer scientist who teamed up with John Warnock (APS 2009) at Xerox and formed Adobe, a firm that rendered traditional printing equipment obsolete.

APS Member David Wake (APS 1996) died on April 29, 2021, in Berkeley, California, at the age of 84. He was one of the world’s leading experts on salamanders and among the first to warn of a precipitous decline in frog, salamander and other amphibian populations worldwide.

March 2021

Steven Weinberg (APS 1982) will be participating in the Harvard Science Book Talk: "an Evening with Steven Weinberg, in conversation with Andrew Strominger"

Gordon Baym (APS 2000) will be giving the talk "Neutron stars & matter under extreme conditions: from Copenhagen to the Golden Age"

Elaine Fuchs (APS 2005) will be giving the talk "Stem Cells: It’s All about the Environment"

Lawrence Bobo (APS 2008), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (APS 1995), and Claude Steele (APS 2008) will be webcasting "America's Black-White Divide: Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Forward" in conversation with Margaret Levi (APS 2018).

Martha C. Nussbaum (APS 1995) has won the 2021 Holberg Prize for her groundbreaking contribution to research in philosophy, law and related fields.

Justice Goodwin Liu (APS 2020) will be chairing a workshop entitled "The Science of Implicit Bias: Implications for Law and Policy".

Margaret Murnane (APS 2015) has been awarded the 2021 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics.

Kathryn Sikkink (APS 2013) will be inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Political Science (AAPSS) in 2021.

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) with the Legend in Leadership Award.

Susan Neiman (APS 2018) will be giving the talk "Conversations on Europe. Learning from Memory: A Transatlantic Conversation with Susan Neiman and Michael Rothberg."

Walter Isaacson (APS 2005) will be giving the talk "A Conversation with Jennifer Doudna & Walter Isaacson."

Stuart H. Orkin (APS 2017) has been awarded the 2021 Gruber Genetics Prize, for pioneering our understanding of the development of blood cells (hematopoiesis) and the genetic underpinnings of both rare and common blood cell disorders.

Olufunmilayo I. Olopade (APS 2011) will be giving the lecture "What African Genomes Tell Us About the Origins of Breast Cancer" at the STAGE International Speaker Seminar Series.

The Harvard Gazette published a memorial tribute to the late Sidney Verba (APS 2003).

The 2021 Wolf prize in Medicine was awarded to Joan Steitz (APS 1992) for ground-breaking discoveries on RNA processing and its function.

The 2021 Wolf prize in Physics is awarded to Giorgio Parisi (APS 2013) for ground-breaking discoveries in disordered systems, particle physics and statistical physics.

Twyla Tharp (APS 2015) biography on American Masters premieres March 26.


APS Member Alexander Spirin (APS 1997), Director Emeritus of the Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, died December 30.

APS Member Robert Middlekauff (APS 1997), Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, died March 10.

APS Member George F. Bass (APS 1989), pioneering underwater archaeologist and Texas A&M Distinguished Professor Emeritus, died Tuesday March 2 in Bryan, Texas, at 88.

February 2021

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Carl June (APS 2020) has won a "future" Dan David Prize for Molecular Medicine.

Corning Incorporated today appointed Roger W. Ferguson Jr. (APS 2016), president and chief executive officer of TIAA, to Corning’s Board of Directors, effective April 1, 2021.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (APS 1995) has recently published The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.

Sean B. Carroll (APS 2017), a world-renowned evolutionary biologist whose discoveries have shed light on the evolution of animal diversity, will deliver the 2021 Darwin Day Lecture at Vanderbilt University.

Joanna Aizenberg (APS 2016) will be giving the lecture "New Bio-inspired Materials: When Chemistry Meets Optics, Mechanics and Surface Science"

Katherine Sikkink (APS 2013) will give a lecture on her book The Hidden Face of Rights: Towards a Politics of Responsibilities.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) was named recipient of the 2021 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage. An annual award from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Ivan Allen Jr. prize honors individuals who have stood up for moral principles at the risk of their careers and livelihoods.

Judge David S. Tatel (APS 2007) has notified President Biden that he will assume senior status effective upon the appointment of his successor. He has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for 27 years and looks forward to serving many more as a senior judge.


APS Member Paul J. Crutzen (APS 2007) died on January 28, 2021, in Mainz, Germany, at the age of 87.  He was a Nobel-winning chemist who revealed threats to the ozone layer, developed the concept of “nuclear winter” and concluded that humans were having such a profound impact on the planet that it was time to recognize a new geological epoch.

APS member George P. Shultz (APS 1992) died on February 6, 2021, in Stanford, CA, at the age of 100.  He carried one of Washington’s weightiest résumés — labor secretary, treasury secretary and budget director for Nixon and secretary of state under Reagan as the Cold War waned. He won the Medal of Freedom in 1989.

APS member J. Hillis Miller (APS 2004) died on February 9, 2021, in Sedgwick, Maine, at the age of 92.  He was a massively influential literary critic and theorist.

APS Member I. M. Singer (APS 1985) died on February 11, 2021, in Boxborough, MA, at the age of 96. Dr. Singer created a bridge between two seemingly unrelated areas of mathematics and then used it to build a further bridge into theoretical physics. He won the National Medal of Science in 1983 and the Abel Prize in 2004.

APS member William B. Eagleson, Jr. (APS 1977) died on February 5, 2021, in Lafayette Hill, PA, at the age of 95.  He was former chairman of Girard Bank, Philadelphia, and chairman emeritus of Mellon Bank Corp.

January 2021

Meave Leaky (APS 2017) has a new book out, entitled The Sediments of Time.

Louise Richardson (APS 2017) will be part of the Irish Embassy's 2021 St Brigid’s Day Festival.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) was named recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal. The Public Welfare Medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award and was presented to him for his "decades-long leadership in combatting emerging infectious diseases, from the AIDS crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, and being a clear, consistent, and trusted voice in public health."

Theda Skocpol (APS 2006) will be speaking at an event entitled "The Next Four Years: what should we expect for America?"

Georgia Tech to Award Anthony S. Fauci (APS 2001) the 2021 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) was awarded the 2020 Harris Dean's Award.

Eric Foner (APS 2018) will deliver the opening Foley Distinguished Lecture, “The crisis in historical context: What the era of Reconstruction tells us,” on Feb. 16.

Sir Angus Deaton (APS 2014), Nobel Prize winning economist and co-author of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, joins the CFA Society for its February Distinguished Speaker Series webinar to discuss his book, address the challenges threatening large parts of middle America, and offer solutions that can alter the current system to one that may work for all.

Jane Goodall (APS 1988) will be speaking at the Salesforce Nonprofit Summit.

Teodolinda Barolini (APS 2002) will unveil Dante's views of “others” in the Divina Commedia and ponder on sexuality issues - his views on women and homosexuality, as well as his attitude towards non-Christians - at an event put on by the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, DC.


APS member Giles Constable (APS 1987) died on January 18, 2021, in Princeton, NJ, at the age of 92.  He was a vigorous explorer of medieval religious and intellectual history whose expansive work has provided new and authoritative perspectives on the Middle Ages.

APS member Lionel Gossman (APS 1996) died on January 11, 2021, in Philadelphia, at the age of 91. He was a specialist in French literature and history and "one of the great humanists and scholar-teachers of his generation."

APS member Shirley S. Abrahamson (APS 1998) died on December 19, 2020, in Berkeley, CA, at the age of 87.  She was the first woman to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and its first female Chief Justice.

APS member Leo A. Goodman (APS 1976) died on December 22, 2020, in California, at the age of 92. He was considered a “giant in his field” of statistics and sociology.

The following Members were found to have passed at an earlier date in our annual membership check:

APS member Larissa Adler Lomnitz (APS 2011) died on April 19, 2019, in Mexico, at the age of 87.  Since the publication of her book Como sobreviven los marginados in 1975, she became known worldwide. Her numerous anthropological studies have long been important references for social science research.

APS member Robert McCredie May (APS 2001) died on April 28, 2020, in the UK, at the age of 84.  As chief scientific adviser to the UK government from 1995 to 2000, he shook up the cozy relationship between politicians and the scientific community, and made both think about the public they served.

APS member Jean-Louis Ferrary (APS 2019) died on August 9, 2020, in France, at the age of 72.  Jean-Louis Ferrary was interested in the history of institutions, law and the laws of ancient Rome, in the history of ideas and ancient political philosophy, in Greek and Latin epigraphy of Roman times, Latin philology and historiography.

APS member Jacques Mehler (APS 2009) died on February 11, 2020, in France, at the age of 84.  Jacques Mehler became one of the founders of twentieth-century psycholinguistics, having gained one of the earliest Ph.D.s in the subject at Harvard in 1964. 

APS member Michael J. Berridge (APS 2007) died on February 13, 2020, in the UK, at the age of 81.  Sir Michael’s work on cell signaling and the landmark discovery of the key role that calcium plays in controlling cellular activity led ultimately to important insights into the physiology of conditions as diverse as cancer, bipolar disorder, cardiovascular and neurological diseases.

APS member Louis Nirenberg (APS 1987) died on January 26, 2020, in New York City, at the age of 95.  He was a mathematician who explored the complexities of equations commonly used by physicists and engineers and shared the 2015 Abel Prize for doing so.

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APS Member News 2020

December

APS Member Theodore J. Ziolkowski (APS 1984) died on December 5, 2020, in Bethlehem, PA, at the age of 88. Ted Ziolkowski was a renowned authority on German and European literature from Romanticism to the present.

APS Member Judith Jarvis Thomson (APS 2019) died on November 20, 2020 at the age of 91. She created new fields of inquiry in philosophy through her writings on abortion and a moral thought experiment that she named the “Trolley Problem.”

November

Marc Tessier-Lavigne (APS 2017) has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Sanctuary Road, by Paul Moravec (2010), has been nominated for a Grammy (Best Choral Performance).

Peter von Hippel (APS 2004) has been recognized as the 2021 recipient of the Ignacio Tinoco Award from the Biophysical Society for his exceptional contributions to the field of biophysics

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (APS 2006) has a posthumous book, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) will be the WHYY 2021 Lifelong Learning Award recipient.

Rita Colwell (APS 2003) gave the talk "A Lab of One's Own: A Personal History of Sexism in Science" for the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Randy Schekman (APS 2008) was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of Eureka Therapeutics.

Bonnie Bassler (APS 2012) will be giving the lecture Tiny Conspiracies: How Bacteria Talk to Each Other at the Wistar Institue.

Claudia Goldin (APS 2015) has won the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics for her groundbreaking insights into the history of the American economy, the evolution of gender roles and the interplay of technology, human capital and labor markets.

Carl June (APS 2020) spoke at a Washington Post Live event entitled Chasing Cancer. Additionally, he was elected to the Board of Directors of AC Immune, a Swiss-based, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Warren Washington (APS 2003) will receive the 2021 NCSE Lifetime Achievement Award for Science, Service, and Leadership.

Michael Hout (APS 2006) will be speaking at the launch ceremony of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai.


APS Member James D. Wolfensohn (APS 1997) died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 86. He was a top Wall Street deal maker and a two-term president of the World Bank.

APS Member Sir John Meurig Thomas (APS 1993) died on November 13, 2020, at the age of 87. Sir John was a pioneer of solid-state chemistry, former Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Director of the Royal Institution.

APS Member Joseph Rishel (APS 2010) died on November 5, 2020, at the age of 80. Mr. Rishel, married to late PMA director and APS Member Anne d'Harnoncourt, was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of European art, his unflagging support of colleagues, his humor, and many spectacular exhibitions.

October

Nicholas Kristof (APS 2011) was awarded the inaugural Aurora Humanitarian Journalism Award for his reporting on human rights abuses and social injustices.

Jonathan Culler (APS 2006) will be giving the lecture "Must Novels Have Narrators and Lyric Poems Speakers?"

Rosanna Warren (APS 2015) has published Max Jacob: A Life in Arts and Letters.

Robert Putnam (APS 2005) has published The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APS 1997) will give a lecture entitled "Overcoming the Challenges of Communicating Emerging Science about COVID-19" as part of the annual Robert W. and Laurie Johnston Lecture series

Jan Ziolkowski (APS 2017) was elected to Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Elaine Fuchs (APS 2005) will give the 27th Annual Murray L. Barr & Gairdner Laureate Lecture. She and Mina Bissell were announced as Gairdner Award winners in March.

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) will discuss how Americans today deal with problematic historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, in the inaugural lecture for the Shapiro Center for American History and Culture at The Huntington.

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) was featured on the Hopkins Health Policy Forum.

Sean Carroll (APS 2017) published A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You.

Thomas Bisson (APS 1975) published The Chronography of Robert of Torigni.

Daniel Mendelsohn (APS 2006) published Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate.

Cass Sunstein (APS 2010) published Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don’t Want to Know.

Linda K. Kerber (APS 2006) will Deliver the 2020 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecture.

The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute For American Democracy will present the next installment of its free, online public forum, the Constitution Series: Equality and Justice for All, featuring Claude M. Steele (APS 2008).

Michael Cook (APS 2001) received the Middle East Medievalists Lifetime Achievement Award.

Louise Glück (APS 2014) has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Andrea Ghez (APS 2012) and Roger Penrose (APS 2011) have won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Joanne Chory (APS 2015) has won the 2020 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize.

Jill Lepore (APS 2014) has published IF THEN: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future.

Joyce Chaplin (APS 2020) will be giving the lecture "Our Man in Paris: Benjamin Franklin" on October 15, 2020.

Pope Francis appointed Fabiola Gianotti (APS 2019), director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Caroline Walker Bynum (APS 1995) published Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe.

Marjorie Garber (APS 2012) published Character: The History of a Cultural Obsession.


APS Member Mario Molina (APS 2007) died on October 7, 2020, at the age of 77. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research that showed how chemicals in hair spray and other products could cause grave environmental damage.

APS Member Renée Claire Fox (APS 2012) died on September 23, 2020, at the age of 92. She conducted extensive ethnographic research in medical sociology for which she traveled to many parts of the world including Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the People's Republic of China.

APS Member Lord Lester of Herne Hill (APS 2003) died on August 8, 2020, at the age of 84. He was the author of the groundbreaking legislation on racial and gender equality introduced in Britain by Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the 1970s.

APS Member Reimar Lüst (APS 1999) died on March 31, 2020, at the age of 97. He was "an outstanding scientist and gifted science organizer, without whom the modern Max Planck Society would be inconceivable."

 

September

Barbara Grosz (APS 2003) will be giving a lecture for Digital Humanism entitled ."An AI and Computer Science Dilemma: Could I? Should I?"

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019) will be giving the The Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture entitled "The Past in the Present: Dealing with Troublesome Histories". Additionally, she will be giving the Abraham Lincoln Lecture on Constitutional Law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

Richard Kagan (APS 2011) has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Steven Weinberg (APS 1982) has been awarded the 2020 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics "For continuous leadership in fundamental physics, with broad impact across particle physics, gravity and cosmology, and for communicating science to a wider audience."

Catherine Dulac (APS 2019) has been awarded the 2021 Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences "For deconstructing the complex behavior of parenting to the level of cell-types and their wiring, and demonstrating that the neural circuits governing both male and female-specific parenting behaviors are present in both sexes."

Kara Walker (APS 2018) has a solo exhibition, Drawings, currently on view in New York. This is a preview for an exhibition in Kunstmuseum Basel opening in June 2021.

Billie Tsien (APS 2017) will be giving the The Lois E. Toko Lecture at the University of Massachusetts.

Harold Varmus (APS 1994) wrote a piece for the New York Times about CDC guidelines during the COVID-19.


APS Member Ruth Bader Ginsburg (APS 2006) died on September 18, 2020. She was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a pioneering advocate for women’s rights.

APS Member Seymour Schwartz (APS 2001) died on August 28, 2020. He was a founding editor of “Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery,” a seminal textbook for medical students.

August

David Rubenstein (APS 2019) gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal about philanthropy. He recently published How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APS 1997) gave an interview to the Philadelphia Inquirer about fact checking the 2020 election.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (APS 2006), has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center.

Gordon Baym (APS 2000) has been awarded the 2021 American Physical Society Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research. The citation reads for “major discoveries in theoretical condensed matter and many-body physics, neutron star structure and composition, quark matter and quark-gluon plasma physics, and in atomic physics and ultracold quantum gases.”

Sir Alan Fersht (APS 2008) has been awarded the prestigious Copley Medal. Sir Alan is widely regarded as one of the main pioneers of protein engineering.


APS Member Bernard Bailyn (APS 1971) died on August 7, 2020. He was a Harvard scholar whose award-winning books on early American history reshaped the study of the origins of the American Revolution.

APS Member Frances E. Allen (APS 2001) died on August 4, 2020. She was a pioneer in the world of computing, the first female IBM Fellow and the first woman to win the Turing Award.

July

Jonathan Culler (APS 2006) has been elected to the British Academy. Culler is a specialist in literary and cultural theory and French literature of the 19th century.

Howard Gardner (APS 2006) received the 2020 Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award, the premier honor from the American Educational Research Association.

Annette Gordon-Reed (APS 2019), the Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard Law School and professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has been named a University Professor, Harvard’s highest faculty honor.


APS Member R. Stephen Berry (APS 2011) died on July 26, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 89. He was a theoretical and physical chemist who made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of the atomic origins of freezing, melting, crystallization, and glass formation; how electrons and photons interact with molecules; and how to make efficient use of energy and the environment.

APS Member Michael Silverstein (APS 2008) died on July 17, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 74. He was an anthropologist who made groundbreaking contributions to linguistic anthropology and helped define the field of sociolinguistics.

APS Member Gordon H. Bower (APS 2004) died on June 17, 2020, in Stanford, California, at the age of 87. He was a cognitive psychologist studying human memory, language comprehension, emotion, and behavior modification; he received a National Medal of Science in 2005 for this work.

June

Danielle Allen (APS 2015) is the recipient of the 2020 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity from the Library of Congress. The prize "recognizes individuals whose outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences has shaped public affairs and civil society" and comes with a $500,000 award.

Paul Moravec (APS 2010) spoke to Harvard Magazine about his work as a composer including his three-part series of American historical oratorios. 

Sir John Meurig Thomas (APS 1993) published a new book, Architects of Structural Biology, on the emergence of the field of molecular biology. Read his interview with ChemistryViews

Sabine Schmidtke (APS 2017) has several new publications: an article in Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies (COMSt) Bulletin 6/1 (2020), "Scribal Practices among European Scholars during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century," "For Sale to the Highest Bidder: A Precious Shiʿi Manuscript from the Early Eleventh Century," in the Shii Studies Review 4 (2020), and the volume Jewish-Muslim Intellectual History Entangled: Textual Materials from the Firkovitch Collection, Saint Petersburg

Anthony Fauci (APS 2001) appeared on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' podcast Learning Curve to discuss the state of COVID-19 vaccine development and the challenges of anti-science bias in the United States.

Jane Goodall (APS 1988) was awarded the 2020 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development.

Ruth Simmons (APS 1997) has been appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas's Houston Branch board of directors.

Corey Goodman (APS 1999) and Marc Tessier-Lavigne (APS 2017) are the winners of the 2020 Gruber Neuroscience Prize along with Friedrich Bonhoeffer.

James C. Scott (APS 2020, pictured) is the recipient of the Albert O. Hischman Prize from the Social Science Research Council, the Council's highest honor.

May

Paul Moravec (APS 2010) composed the music to a large ensemble piece, "Light Shall Lift Us," featuring over 100 opera singers in support of the opera community. The recording is available on YouTube

Robert Wuthnow (APS 2013) has published a new book, What Happens When We Practice Religion?

Robert J. Miller (APS 2014) was named the Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar by the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

Warren Washington (APS 2003) is the 2020 recipient of the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The Society for Classical Studies at New York University has established an annual competition for the best graduate research paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean named in honor of Erich S. Gruen (APS 2000).

Kerry Emmanuel (APS 2019) was elected to the Royal Society as a foreign member.

April

Fernando Pereira (APS 2019) was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Anne Case (APS 2017), Vinton Cerf (APS 2008), and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APS 1997) have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences. Jean Dalibard (APS 2018) and Tim Palmer (APS 2015) have been elected as international members of the NAS.

Peter Katzenstein (APS 2009) has been named the recipient of the 26th Johann Skytte Prize in Political Science. The prize, sometimes called the Nobel Prize for political science, was given to Katzenstein for his work “furthering the understanding of how history, culture and norms shape economies, as well as national and global security policy.” 

Stuart Orkin (APS 2017) is winner of the 2020 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine. The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, established in 2014 by the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, and The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), honors physician-scientists who have moved science forward with achievements notable for innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.

Fabiola Gianotti (APS 2019) was appointed to her second five-year term as head of CERN, which will begin in 2021.

Ruzena Bajcsy (APS 2005) is winner of the 2020 National Center for Women & Information Technology Pioneer in Tech Award. The NCWIT Pioneer in Tech Award recognizes technical women whose lifetime contributions have significantly impacted the landscape of technological innovation.

Sonia Sotomayor (APS 2002) has been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals recognize the exemplary contributions of recipients to the endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high regard.


APS Member Donald Kennedy (APS 1976) died on April 21, 2020, in Redwood City, California, at the age of 88. He was a neurobiologist, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the eighth president of Stanford University.

APS Member Jacques Blamont (APS 2002) died on April 13, 2020, in Châtillon, France at the age of 93. He was a leader in the development of vehicles and instruments for space exploration.

APS Member E. Margaret Burbidge (1980) died on April 5, 2020, in San Francisco, California at the age of 100. She was an astrophysicist who contributed to the design of instruments carried aboard the Hubble telescope and advanced understanding of the stellar origin of chemical elements. Despite facing sexism and discrimination throughout her career, she rose to become director of the Royal Observatory and recipient of the National Medal of Science.

March

Harvey Fineberg (APS 2013) has been named chair of the standing committee "Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Health Threats" requested by the White House in response to the coronavirus.  

Anthony Leggett (APS 1991) has donated his papers to the University of Illinois Archives.

Eric Horvitz (APS 2018) has been appointed Microsoft’s first ever Chief Scientific Officer.

Elaine Fuchs (APS 2005) was awarded the 2020 Canada Gairdner International Award. The Canada Gairdner International Award recognizes outstanding researchers whose unique scientific contributions have increased the understanding of human biology and disease and contributed to the relief of human suffering.

Mina Bissell (APS 2007) was awarded the 2020 Canada Gairdner International Award. The Canada Gairdner International Award recognizes outstanding researchers whose unique scientific contributions have increased the understanding of human biology and disease and contributed to the relief of human suffering.


APS Member Philip W. Anderson (APS 1991) died on March 29, 2020, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 96. He was a Nobel Laureate who contributed to scientific understanding of magnetism, superconductivity, and the structure of matter.

APS Member Walter L. Robb (APS 2000) died on March 23, 2020, in Schenectady, New York, at the age of 92. He was an engineer who rose to become the director of General Electric's research and development center. He was the first APS Member to die of COVID-19.

February

Philip Kitcher (APS 2018) was awarded Rescher Medal for contributions to systematic philosophy. 

The American Meteorological Society has created the Warren Washington Research and Leadership Medal in honor of APS Member and Vice President Warren Washington (APS 2003).

Shirley Ann Jackson (APS 2007) received the 2019 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award


APS Member Freeman J. Dyson (APS 1976) died on February 28, 2020, in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 96. He was known for his landmark contributions to subatomic physics as well as his writing on a wide range of scientific topics.

APS Member Robert H. Dyson, Jr. (APS 1984) died on February 14, 2020, at the age of 92. He was an archaeologist who headed the excavations at the Hasanlu site in Iran from 1956-1977.

Frank H.T. Rhodes (APS 1991), who served as President of the American Philosophical Society from 1999 to 2005, died February 3, 2020, in Bonita Springs, Florida, at the age of 93. He was Cornell University’s ninth president, a national figure in higher education, and an esteemed paleontologist.

January

Kamaljit Bawa (APS 2019) accepted the 2019 UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Conservation on behalf of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, which he founded. The UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Conservation is a biennial award “to afford recognition to outstanding contributions by individuals, groups of individuals, institutes or organizations in the management or preservation of the environment, consistent with the policies, aims and objectives of UNESCO, and in relation to the Organization's programmes in this field”.

Jennifer Higdon (APS 2019) won a Classical Grammy in the category of best contemporary classical composition for Higdon: Harp Concerto

Sandra Faber (2001) was awarded the Gold Medal in Astronomy by the Royal Astronomical Society. The Gold Medal is the Royal Astronomical Society’s highest award and was given in recognition of “her outstanding research on the formation, structure and evolution of galaxies, and for her contributions to the optical design of the Keck Telescopes and other novel astronomical instruments.”

Stuart Orkin (APS 2017) was awarded the 2020 King Faisal Prize in Medicine. He was awarded the Prize “for his outstanding contributions to the field of hemoglobinopathies which included seminal contributions of basic discoveries as well as translating them into clinical care.”

The National Science Foundation announced that its new observatory, which will begin operating in 2022, will be named the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin (1928-2016) was elected a member of the APS in 1995.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education has created an endowed professorship named in honor of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (APS 2008). 

Kathleen Hall Jamieson (APS 1997) was named recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal. The Public Welfare Medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award and was presented to her for her “nonpartisan crusade to ensure the integrity of facts in public discourse and development of the science of scientific communication to promote public understanding of complex issues.” 

Laurie Glimcher (APS 2019) was named to Stand Up to Cancer Advisory Committee.

Nicholas Canny (APS 2007) was awarded the Cunningham Medal, the highest honor of the Royal Irish Academy.


APS Member Frank Press (APS 1973) died on January 29, 2020, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 95. He was a geophysicist who served as president of the National Academy of Sciences and held several scientific advisory roles within the federal government.

APS Member Michael I. Sovern (APS 1999) died on January 20, 2020, in New York, New York, at the age of 88. He was a legal scholar and president of Columbia University.

December 2019

Peter Dervan (APS 2002) was named to National Academy of Inventors.

Cynthia Dwork (APS 2016) was awarded the IEEE Hamming Medal. The award recognizes exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems, and technology. Dwork was chosen for her “foundational work in privacy, cryptography, and distributed computing, and for leadership in developing differential privacy.”

Patricia Wright (APS 2013) was formally installed in the Herrnstein Family Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology at Stony Brook University. 

APS Member Gertrude Himmelfarb (APS 1986) died on December 30, 2019, in Washington, DC, at the age of 97. She was a prominent intellectual whose work ranged from scholarship of Victorian Britain to conservative commentary on modern society.

APS Member Hans Kornberg (APS 1993) died on December 16, 2019, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, at the age of 91. He was a biochemist who studied metabolic cycles in microorganisms.

APS Member Paul A. Volcker (APS 1998) died on December 8, 2019, in New York, New York, at the age of 92. He was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and chairman of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

APS Member Brian Tierney (APS 1990) died on November 30, 2019, in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 97. He was a medieval historian and a leading authority on medieval church law and political thought.

APS Member John B. Robbins (APS 2002) died on November 27, 2019, in New York, New York, at the age of 86. He was a pioneer in vaccinology and one of the inventors of the first effective defense against Hib meningitis.

APS Member Mary Lowe Good (APS 2000) died on November 20, 2019, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 88. She was a pioneering chemist and a leader in science and education.

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Tunica Animacy

by Patricia Anderson

Tunica nouns have both a grammatical gender and an animacy class. Tunica grammatical gender is either masculine or feminine; there is no neuter or neutral grammatical gender. Tunica animacy classes consist of inanimate, animate-non-human, and animate-human.

Gender and animacy are inextricably linked in Tunica because they are expressed with the same set of suffixes. Known as the Gender-Number Affixes (GNA), affixes encoding grammatical gender and animacy appear on nouns and noun phrases throughout the Tunica texts.

ihchahchi

i-hcha-hchi

my-grandparent-feminine singular GNA

my grandmother

 

Ihchaku

i-cha-ku

my-grandparent-masculine singular GNA

my grandfather

 

ihksaku

ihk-sa-ku

my-dog-masculine singular GNA

my dog

 

ihksasinima

ihk-sa-sinima

my-dog-feminine plural GNA

my dogs

Grammatical gender in Tunica is related to biological gender at some level, as we can see with the two “grandparent” examples above: “grandmother” takes the feminine suffix while “grandfather” takes the masculine suffix. However when referring to mixed groups, the ending cannot refer to biological gender alone. Instead, the GNA selected reflects both the number of referents and the animacy class of said nouns.

Consider the following examples. In the first set, the noun is a human, and in the second set, the noun is an animal.

Etiku - my friend -- ku is masculine singular ending

Et’unima - my two friends -- unima is the masculine dual ending

Etisɛma - my many friends -- sɛma is the masculine plural ending

Etiku - my group of friends -- ku is the masculine collective ending

 

Rushtaku - a rabbit -- ku is masculine singular ending

Rusht’unima - two rabbits -- unima is the masculine dual ending

Rushtasinima - many rabbits - sinima is the feminine plural ending

Rushtahchi - a group of rabbits - hchi is the feminine collective ending

As seen above, when there are one or two nouns, there is no distinction between human or animal endings. However, once you increase the number past three items, the difference in animacy class is apparent from the endings - masculine endings are used for humans and feminine endings are used for non-humans.

This pattern of human/non-human animacy is also seen in verb endings when the subject is unknown or indefinite. For example, if I hear a number of voices, and I want to ask “who is making all that racket?” in Tunica, I use the masculine verb endings.

     Kaku hahpaya yata?

     who   noise      they are making (masculine)

On the other hand, if I hear a bunch of animal yowls, and want to ask “who is making all that racket?” I would say.

     Kaku hahpaya yasiti?

     who   noise      they are making (feminine)

For a more indepth look at Tunica grammatical gender and animacy as evidenced though GNAs in the texts, see Heaton and Anderson (2017).

 

References

Heaton, Raina and Patricia Anderson. 2017. “When Animals Become Humans: Grammatical Gender in Tunica.” International Journal of American Linguistics vol 83, no 2.

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Language isolate

by Patricia Anderson


Tunica is a language isolate, meaning it is unrelated to any other language today. But, as is the case with many language isolates, it is likely that related languages once existed. Unfortunately, no related languages were recorded or written down before their speakers were coerced to stop speaking them. Youchigant mentions a mutually intelligible language in Notebook 9, stating that “there used to be another tribe near the Tunica and their languages were mutually intelligible” (180)

Detail of Tunica notebook 9, page 180
Excerpt from Tunica Notebook 9, page 180

Several linguistic relations for Tunica have been proposed over the years. John R. Swanton (1919) proposed a relationship between Tunica, Chitimacha, and Ishak (Atakapa). Edward Sapir (1929) included Tunica in the Hokan-Siouan super-stock. Mary Haas (1951, 1952, 158) proposed a Gulf language family that included Tunica, Natchez, Muskogean, and tentatively included Ishak (Atakapa) and Chitimacha. Pamela Munro (1994) expanded on Haas’s Guld classification to encompass Yuki. For a comprehensive analysis of proposed linguistic relations of Tunica, see Campbell (1997, particularly pages 305-309). 

All of the aforementioned theories have since been evaluated as unlikely, based on the existing linguistic evidence.

It is conceivable that languages that were not documented held the key to Tunica linguistic relationships. Non-linguistic documentation indicates the possibility. For example, Yazoo was the language spoken by the Yazoo people. The Yazoo were allies of the Tunica in the early 18th century, and they lived very near the Tunica people at the mouth of the Yazoo river. Jesuit missionary Father Antione Davion lived among the Tunica and Yazoo from 1700-1708, and he wrote letters back to the seminary in Quebec indicating he could be understood in both languages. It is possible that Yazoo language was the mutually intelligible language Youchigant was referring to, however Davion did not include any language samples in his letters, so do not know if he could speak both languages or if he spoke one language that was understood by both groups. Or perhaps Youchigant is referring to Koroa, another small nation in the area allied with the Yazoo. However, these are just speculations. Given that no linguistic documentation survives of either Yazoo or Koroa, we will not be able to prove they have any linguistic relationship to Tunica today. Hence, Tunica remains classified as a language isolate.

 

References

Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian Languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press, New York.

Munro, Pamela. 1994. Gulf and Yuki-Gulf. Anthropological Linguistics 36(2):125-222.

Swanton, John R. 1919. A Structural and Lexical Comparison of the Tunica, Chitimacha, and Atakapa Languages. Bulletin 68. Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington, D.C.

 

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Spatial Orientation in Tunica Grammar

by Patricia Anderson

Sitting, standing and lying down:  those are the three positions any noun can take in the Tunica language. Some nouns are inherently one position: rivers always lie; trees generally stand. It is possible for a tree to lay after it is felled. But under no circumstances of Tunica grammar could a tree sit.

Spatial orientation shows up grammatically in the use of existentials, English equivalents of “there is” or “there are.” The verbs to denote existentials inherently encode sitting, standing or lying. For example, “there is a tree” uses the verb kal’ura since it is standing whereas “there is a snake” uses the verb ura since it is lying. Certain animals inherently squat, such as ducks; stating that these nouns exist uses the verb una.

Rihku kal’ura

tree  there is (standing)

There is a tree

 

Nara ura

Snake  there is (lying)

There is a snake

 

Kuwa una

duck    there is (sitting)

There is a duck

Position in space is also expressed grammatically when creating durative constructions. Durative constructions in Tunica are often translated as progressive verbs in English. “He is sleeping” is inflected with a form of ura, since you most often sleep lying down. Whereas “he is sitting” is inflected with a form of una, since you always sit in a sitting position.

Rap’ura

rapu-ura

sleep-durative

He is sleeping

 

Uk’una

uki-una

sit-durative

He is sitting

If you’d like to provide additional information, you can indicate that someone is doing something in different positions based on the verb you use to inflect. See the below example for the difference. 

Har’ura

hara-ura

sing-durative

He is singing (in a lying position)

 

Har’una

hara-una

sing-durative

He is singing (in a sitting position)

During her work with Youchigant, Haas became aware of this distinction in Tunica grammar. She specifically set up elicitation paradigms to illuminate this grammatical feature; and in later notebooks, Haas was sure to ask about activities in a variety of positions in order to see if there were any grammatical nuances she should be aware of.



This example from Notebook 14 shows the different position used when asking where something is; ara is the feminine singular form of ura.

Detail of Tunica notebook 14, page 2
Excerpt from Tunica Notebook 14, page 2

When asking where “rice” is, you use the verb that denotes a lying position, whereas when you ask where the “star” is, you use the verb that denotes a sitting position. 

As you can see above with the feminine ara and the masculine una, spatial orientation is intertwined with grammatical gender and animacy class. For more on these topics, see Tunica Animacy.

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2022 Jacques Barzun Prize

Elizabeth Samet receiving the prize certificate
APS President Linda Greenhouse (l) and Committee Chair Michael Wood (c) presenting the prize to Elizabeth Samet (r)

The recipient of the 2022 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History is Elizabeth D. Samet, in recognition of her book, Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).  Dr. Samet has been a Professor of English at West Point (United States Military Academy), since 1997. The 2022 Barzun Prize was presented at the Society's November 2022 Meeting.

‘Miraculously’, Elizabeth Samet writes with some irony, ‘the deadliest conflict in human history became something inherently virtuous’.  We turned the damage and loss of the Second World War into a scene of rescue, an American saving of the face of democracy and kindness.  ‘Each generation has found a new use for the Good War’, Samet says.  It is seen as the only one of its kind, the war that all other wars fail to be.  The ‘keynotes’ of the myth, as she defines them, include the following claims: the United States joined the war for idealistic reasons; Americans were united in the war effort; Americans ‘fight decently reluctantly, only when they must’.  Without wishing to deny the heroism of many soldiers or the horrors committed by the enemies, Samet asks us to attend to a more complex view of the long historical situation.

When she quotes a war industry worker as saying that World War II was ‘the last time in the history of the country when a full-blown spirit of patriotism was in every heart’, Samet doesn’t deny that the spirit was in some hearts, only asks us to wonder what was going on in the hearts that didn’t feel that way, and what happens to our sense of history if we fail to take them into account.  This is her recurring theme, as she explores stories of the good war in political campaigns, history books, tv series, movies, guidebooks, comics, memorial speeches, and much else.    The myth of World War II excuses other, more questionable combats, she says, so that ‘we allow our guilt to obscure the realities of devastating, indecisive wars’, and thereby ‘increase the likelihood of finding ourselves in a similar predicament once again’.  Samet is particularly persuasive on the topic of lateness, both in wartime and after.  Which ardent defendants of democracy were paying attention when Italy took over Ethiopia and civil war broke out in Spain?  Even in England, after the Munich agreement, there was a will to do nothing until after the last minute.  ‘It was easier’, Samet says, ‘to think of all those veterans of Spain as premature anti-fascists than it was to accept that one had been too late’.  Looking for the Good War is a defense of history in the fullest sense, a model examination of one of our most dangerous habits: replacing accounts of what happened with flattering posthumous fables.  Even when the fables are partially true, it’s usually worth taking another look at them.

The Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History is awarded annually to the author whose book exhibits distinguished work in American or European cultural history.  Established by a former student of Jacques Barzun, the prize honors this historian and cultural critic who was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1984.

The selection committee consisted of Michael Wood (chair), Charles Barnwell Straut Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Princeton University; David Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; and Robert B. Pippin, Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor, Committee on Social Thought, Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago.

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