Philadelphia—The American Philosophical Society (APS), the oldest and most distinguished learned society in North America, is pleased to announce the election of 38 new Members in 2025. These new Members represent outstanding achievement in the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and technology, as well as leadership in industry, higher education, and nonprofit administration. The current elected membership of the APS consists of 817 resident members and 159 international members. Only 5,854 members have been elected since 1743.
Roger S. Bagnall, President of the APS said, “It is a pleasure to announce a distinguished new class of members elected to the American Philosophical Society by its Members. Their work represents the highest levels of accomplishment in their respective fields and we look forward to welcoming them to the life and work of the Society.”
The APS was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin to bring together creative thinkers in the sciences and other fields of study (then referred to as “natural philosophy”), for the broad purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” The APS continues to be a forum for the free exchange of ideas, exemplified by its twice-annual Members’ Meetings, the longest-running scholarly press in North America, a grants and fellowships program that brings scholars to the Society to perform research at its library and museum and sends them into field sites and archives across the globe, and a museum that welcomes upwards of 100,000 visitors each year.
“The APS has a rich history going back to the nation’s founding and our Members are a large part of what makes the APS so vital today—their ground-breaking research and transformative leadership have had an immeasurable impact on every field of knowledge,” said APS Chief Executive Officer Patrick Spero.
Newly-elected Members join a long lineage that includes many of the nation’s founders —George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall were all APS Members. In the 19th century, John James Audubon, Maria Mitchell, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and Louis Pasteur were among those elected. Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, and Sandra Day O’Connor hint at the scientific, humanistic, and public accomplishments of 20th-century Members.
Current and past members are listed in our Member database.
CLASS 1: MATHEMATICIAN AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Barry Barish
Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, California Institute of Technology; Professor, University of California, Riverside; President's Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics, Stony Brook University
Persis Drell
Provost Emerita, James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor, Stanford University Professor of Materials, Science and Engineering, Professor of Physics, Stanford University
Susan T. Dumais
Technical Fellow, Managing Director, Microsoft Research New England, New York City, and Montreal, Microsoft
Michael Harris
Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University; Professor émérite, Université Paris Cité
Marcia Jean Rieke
Regents' Professor of Astronomy, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
International
Alejandro de Ávila Blomberg
Founding Director, Ethnobotanical Garden, Oaxaca, México; Curator, Oaxaca Textile Museum
Egbert “Bert” Willem Meijer
Distinguished Professor in the Molecular Sciences, Professor of Organic Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology
CLASS 2: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Martin Chalfie
University Professor, Columbia University
Dianne K. Newman
Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology, Merkin Institute Professor, California Institute of Technology
Mary Eleanor Power
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley; Faculty Manager, Angelo Coast Range Reserve
Terrence J. Sejnowski
Professor, Francis Crick Chair, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Professor of Biology, Adjunct Professor of Neurosciences, Cognitive Science, and Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego
Paul Turner
Rachel Carson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University; Director of Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale; Faculty Member, Graduate Programs in Microbiology, Yale University School of Medicine
International
Paul Nurse
Chief Executive Officer, The Francis Crick Institute; Chancellor, University of Bristol
Janet Rossant
President and Scientific Director, Gairdner Foundation; Senior Scientist Emeritus, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto; University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
William James Sutherland
Director of Research, Department of Zoology, The University of Cambridge
CLASS 3: SOCIAL SCIENCES
David Card
Class of 1950 Professor of Economics, Director, Center for Labor Economics, Director, Econometrics Laboratory, University of California Berkeley
Esther Duflo
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Co-Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Chaire, Pauvreté et politiques, College de France
Sherrilyn Ifill
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
Hazel Rose Markus
Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Faculty Director, Stanford SPARQ, Stanford University
Angela R. Riley
Professor of Law and American Indian Studies, Carole Goldberg Endowed Chair of Native American Law; Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs, Director, Native Nations Law & Policy Center, UCLA; Justice, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation; Appellate Justice, Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians Court of Appeals; Appellate Justice, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Court of Appeals; Visiting professor, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Timothy David Snyder
Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Public Affairs, Yale University; Permanent fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen
International
Bertrand Van Ruymbeke
Full professor of American Civilization and History, Université de Paris 8 (Vincennes Saint-Denis); Principal Investigator, America2026
CLASS 4: HUMANITIES
David A. Bell
Director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University; Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions, Department of History, Princeton University
Brigitte Bedos-Rezak
Professor of History, Affiliate Professor, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Affiliate Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Paul D. Guyer
Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy Emeritus, Brown University
Margaret Leah King
Professor Emerita of History, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, City University of New York
James Lowe Peacock
Kenan Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
International
Nicholas Ernst Cronk
Director, Voltaire Foundation for Enlightenment Studies, Professor of European Enlightenment Studies, Emeritus Fellow, St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
CLASS 5: THE ARTS, PROFESSIONS, AND LEADERS IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE AFFAIRS
Julie A. Fairman
Nightingale Professor in Nursing Emerita, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Alan Michael Garber
President, Harvard University; Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Economics, Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences; Professor of Public Policy; Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Edward Kane
Senior Advisor and Co-Founder, HarbourVest Partners
William (Bill) Herbert Miller
Retired Founder, Chairman, & Chief Investment Officer, Miller Value Partners
Lance Morgan
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ho-Chunk, Inc.; Founding Partner, Big Fire Law & Policy Group, LLP
Jeffrey Rosen
President, Chief Executive Officer, National Constitution Center; Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Bradford Lee Smith
President, Vice Chair, Microsoft
Valerie Smith
President, Swarthmore College
International
Meitamei Olol-Dapash
Founder and Executive Director, Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition (MERC); Co-Director, Maasai Community Partnership Project (MCPP)
María Isabel Grañén Porrúa
President, Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation; President, Civil Association Apoyo al Desarrollo de Archives y Bibliotecas de México; Director, Francisco de Burga Library, UABJO