Eight MIT faculty members were inducted as 1998 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on October 3.
The new MIT fellows are Professor Robert W. Field of chemistry; Adjunct Professor D. George Forney of electrical engineering and computer science; Ellen Harris, the Class of 1949 Professor of Music; Professor Nancy H. Hopkins of biology; Pauline Maier, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the history section; Professor Steven Pinker of brain and cognitive sciences, and Professor Rainer Weiss of physics. They are among the 146 new Fellows and 22 foreign honorary members elected last spring.
In addition, nine alumni/ae were elected as Fellows. They are Constance L. Cepko (PhD 1982, biology) of Harvard University; Drew Fudenberg (PhD 1981, economics) of Harvard University and a former MIT faculty member; Leland H. Hartwell (PhD 1964, biology) of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; John M. Hayes of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (PhD 1966, chemistry), Robert Laudise (PhD 1956, chemistry) of AT&T Bell Labs; Robert A. Mundell (PhD 1956, economics) of Columbia University; John Reed (SB 1961, management, SM), chairman of Citicorp; Richard W. Tsien (SB 1965, SM, physics) of Stanford University; and Carl E. Wieman (SB 1973, physics) of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Of the 22 foreign honorary members elected this year, one was an MIT alumnus: Jacob Ziv (ScD 1962, economics) of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
The academy, located in Cambridge, addresses issues of intellectual consequence to the nation through interdisciplinary and collaborative projects and publications, including the journal Daedalus. Academy projects include the Committee on International Security Studies, which is engaged in a long term study of current global security issues; and the Initiatives for Children project, dealing with the critical problems confronting children in our society, with a particular emphasis on health and education.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 21, 1998.
