Forty-One Women Academics Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS) recently announced the selection of 197 new members, including 16 new fellows from foreign nations. Membership in the academy is offered to leaders in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, business, public affairs and the nonprofit sectors.

The academy was founded in 1780. Members have included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Meade, and Martin Luther King Jr. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel Prize winners.

Through an analysis of the list of new fellows conducted by JBHE, it appears that 53 of the new members of the AAAS are women. Forty-one of the 53 new women members have current ties to the academic world.

(L to R) Top row: Marilyn McCord Adams, Lisa Anderson, Marcia Angell, Jean Bennett, Sangeeta Bhatia, Sarah A. Binder, and June Kathryn Bock. Second row: Kang-i Sun Chang, Patricia Smith Churchland, Margaret S. Clark, Anne Fadiman, Jane C. Ginsburg, Sally Haslanger, and N. Katherine Hayles. Third row: Gail Hershatter, Kay E. Holekamp, Linda G. Hsieh-Wilson, Nina G. Jablonski. Kay Redfield Jamison, Eugenia Kalnay, and Victoria M. Kaspi. Fourth row: Barbara Kruger, Margaret S. Livingstone, Renu Malhotra, Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Milbrey W. McLaughlin, Francoise Meltzer, and Janet Napolitano. Fifth row: Jill Pipher, Keren D. Rice, Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum, Jenny Saffran, Sandra L. Schmid, Joan B. Silk, and Sharon Y. Strauss. Bottom row: Teresa A. Sullivan, Kathleen Thelen, Robin L. West, Karen L. Wooley, Carol M. Worthman, and Wei Yang.

Marilyn McCord Adams is the recurring visiting professor of philosophy at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois and holds two master’s degrees from the Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Adams earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Cornell University and a doctor of divinity degree at Oxford University.

Lisa Anderson is president of the American University in Cairo. Previously, she was a professor and dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City. Dr. Anderson is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, and holds a master’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She earned a Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University.

Marcia Angell is a senior lecturer on social medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the first woman to serve as editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Angell is a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the Boston University School of Medicine.

Jean Bennett is the F.M. Kirby Professor of Ophthalmology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Bennett is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Medical School. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sangeeta Bhatia is the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bhatia is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Medical School. She holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from MIT.

Sarah A. Binder is a professor of political science at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She joined the faculty at George Washington University in 1999 and was promoted to full professor in 2005. A graduate of Yale University, Dr. Binder earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Minnesota.

June Kathryn Bock is a professor of linguistics and a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois. Professor Bock is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Illinois.

Kang-i Sun Chang is the Malcolm G. Chase ’56 Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Chang is a graduate of Tunshai University in Taiwan. She holds a master of library science degree from Rutgers University, a master’s degree from San Diego State University, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Patricia Smith Churchland is a University of California President Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. She previously taught at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Dr. Churchland is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. She earned a master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh and subsequently studied philosophy at the University of Oxford.

Margaret S. Clark is a professor of psychology at Yale University. Her research is focused on human emotions and interpersonal relationships. Professor Clark earned a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Anne Fadiman is the Francis Writer-In-Residence at Yale University. She is the author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997). The work won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fadiman is a graduate of Harvard University.

Jane C. Ginsburg is the Morton J. Janklow Professor of Literacy and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School in New York City. Professor Ginsburg holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago. She holds law degrees from Harvard Law School and the University of Paris.

Sally Haslanger is a professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the MIT faculty in 1998 and was promoted to full professor in 2004. Dr. Haslanger is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley.

N. Katherine Hayles is a professor of literature and director of graduate studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Hayles is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology and earned a master’s degree at the California Institute of Technology. She then made a major career switch earning a master’s degree in English literature at Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in English at the University of Rochester.

Gail Hershatter is a Distinguish Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of the book The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China’s Collective Past (University of California Press, 2011). Professor Hershatter is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Kay E. Holekamp is the University Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Professor Holekamp is graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Linda G. Hsieh-Wilson is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at CalTech in 2000 and was promoted to full professor in 2010. Dr. Hsieh-Wilson holds master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Nina G. Jablonski is the Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington.

Kay Redfield Jamison is the Dalio Family Professor of Mood Disorders at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. She holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, all from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Eugenia Kalnay is a Distinguished University Professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic science at the University of Maryland. Previously, she worked for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and for the National Weather Service. Dr. Kalnay holds a Ph.D. in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Victoria M. Kaspi is a professor of physics and director of the McGill Space Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. A native of Austin, Texas, Dr. Kaspi is a graduate of McGill University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in New Jersey. She joined the faculty at McGill in 1999.

Barbara Kruger is a professor of art at the University of California, Los Angeles. She previously taught at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Kruger studied art at Syracuse University in New York and the Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Margaret S. Livingstone is the Takeda Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing (Harry N. Abrams, 2003, 2014).

Renu Malhotra is a professor and chair of the department of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona. She joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 2004. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, Dr. Malhotra earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cornell University.

Jane Dammen McAuliffe is the director of the John W. Kluge Center and the Office of Scholarly Programs at the Library of Congress. Dr. McAuliffe is the former president of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Trinity College and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Milbrey W. McLaughlin is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy Emerita at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. She is a graduate of Connecticut College and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Francoise Meltzer is the Edward Carson Walker Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and chair of the department of comparative literature at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Seeing Double: Baudelaire’s Modernity (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

Janet Napolitano is president of the University of California System. She is the former governor of the state of Arizona and served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. President Napolitano is a graduate of Santa Clara University in California and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Jill Pipher is the Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor of Mathematics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Professor Pipher is the past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Keren D. Rice is a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto in Canada. She has served on the University of Toronto faculty since 2004. Professor Rice is the editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics.

Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum is the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in medical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jenny Saffran is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is focused on language acquisition and early cognitive development. Professor Saffran is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

Sandra L. Schmid is the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Chair in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Professor Schmid is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University.

Joan B. Silk is a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. She has been on the faculty at Arizona State since 2012. Previously, she taught at UCLA for nearly two decades. Dr. Silk is a graduate of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Davis.

Sharon Y. Strauss is a professor in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She is a graduate of Harvard University. Professor Strauss earned a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Florida State University.

Teresa A. Sullivan is president of the University of Virginia. She has served in that role since 2010. Previously, she was on the faculty at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas. Dr. Sullivan is a graduate of Michigan State University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Kathleen Thelen is the Ford Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been on the MIT faculty since 2009 and previously taught from 1994 to 2009 at Northwestern University. Professor Thelen is a graduate of the University of Kansas. She holds a master degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Robin L. West is the Frederick J. Haas Professor of Law and Philosophy at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. She previously taught at the University of Maryland. Professor West holds a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Maryland.

Karen L. Wooley is the W.T. Doherty Welch Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. She has been on the faculty at the university since 2009. Previously, Dr. Wooley taught at Washington University in St. Louis from 1993 to 2009. She is a graduate of Oregon State University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cornell University.

Carol M. Worthman is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta. She joined the Emory faculty in 1986 and was promoted to full professor in 1998. Dr. Worthman is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, and holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Harvard University.

Wei Yang is the chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a graduate of Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System and earned two master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Columbia University. Dr. Yang is also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.