April 2025
Meetings of the American Philosophical Society are held each April and November for elected Members, their families, and distinguished guests. Most sessions are live streamed.
This schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Benjamin Franklin Hall
1:00 p.m.
Opening Remarks
Induction of Members attending their first Meeting
New Bio-inspired Materials: When Biology Meets Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, and Design
Joanna Aizenberg
Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Harvard University
The Case for Curiosity-Driven Research: New Treatments for Cancer and Anemia Emerging from Studies of an Obscure Hereditary Cancer Syndrome
William Kaelin, Jr.
Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine
Harvard University
Intermission
Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Help Heal a Divided World
Michèle Lamont
Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies and Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies
Harvard University
The APS and the Pursuit of Happiness
Jeffrey Rosen
President and CEO
National Constitution Center
4:45 p.m.
Philosophical Hall
Meeting of the Society’s Council
4:45 p.m.
Library Hall
Tour of the Library Collections
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Benjamin Franklin Hall
9:00 a.m.
Induction of Members attending their first Meeting
Report on the Society
Individual Specialization in a Generalist Apex Predator: The Leopard Seal
Emily S. Sperou
Baylor University
Lewis and Clark Fund Recipient
Postcolonial Provenance Research, Transcultural Cooperation and Restitution Practices: Lessons Learnt from the Humboldt Forum
Hermann Parzinger
President
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Intermission
Do Children Have Ideas?
Susan Engel
Senior Lecturer in Psychology; Senior Faculty Fellow, Rice Center for Teaching; The Class of 1959 Director of Program in Teaching
Williams College
Behind Their Screens: Reframing the Current Conversation on Teens and Tech
Carrie James
Co-Director, Center for Digital Thriving & Project Zero
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Lunch
We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For
Eddie Glaude
James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor
Princeton University
Award Ceremony
From Chasing My Cure to Every Cure: Unlocking Solutions Hiding in Plain Sight
David Fajgenbaum
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Co-Founder & President, Every Cure
Title to be announced
Barbara Wold
Bren Professor of Molecular Biology and Merkin Institute Professor
Caltech
Intermission
Concert
Raman Ramakrishnan (cellist) and
Benjamin Hochman (pianist)
- Beethoven: Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” WoO 46
- Britten: Sonata in C Major, Op. 65
- Beethoven: Sonata in A Major, Op. 69
4:45 p.m.
Philosophical Hall
Members' Business Meeting
Friday, April 25, 2025
Benjamin Franklin Hall
9:00 a.m.
Induction of Members attending their first Meeting
Reflections: A Conversation on Higher Education and Its Future
Ben Vinson
President, Howard University
and
Beverly Tatum
President Emerita, Spelman College
What Scientists and Policymakers Can Learn from the Input that Meteorologists Gave General Eisenhower
Paul Romer
University Professor
Boston College
Intermission
Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution
Mary Sarah Bilder
Founders Professor of Law
Boston College
Following Faraday's Hint: The Search for Quantum Gravity
Jim Gates
Clark Leadership Chair in Science and Distinguished University Professor and Regents Professor
University of Maryland
Lunch
Philosophical Hall
Museum Gallery Viewing and Conversation with Museum Staff
Benjamin Franklin Hall
Bus departures at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. for Philadelphia International Airport