The American Philosophical Society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. The society honors distinguished scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars, artists, and societal leaders with membership in the society. Members have included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Frost, Thomas Edison, Sandra Day O’Connor, Charles Darwin, Toni Morrison, and Albert Einstein. The Russian Princess Dashkova, president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, was elected in 1789 and was the society’s first female member.
This year the society granted membership to 33 individuals. Of these 19 are women and 15 have ties to the academic world in the United States.
Lene Vestergaard Hau, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, area chair for applied physics, Harvard University
Marilyn Raphael, professor of geography, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles
Rosina M. Bierbaum, professor of natural resources and environment policy, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan; and the holder of the Roy F. Weston Chair in Natural Economics, University of Maryland
Barbara Anna Schaal, the Mary Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor, department of biology, Washington University in St. Louis
Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor, department of African American studies, Emory University
Ellen R. Cohn, senior research scholar, department of history, Yale University
Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt, the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, William R. Kimball Professor at the Graduate School of Business, and professor of psychology, Stanford University
Kathryn Edin, the William Church Osborn Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Catharine A. MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Kellie Jones, professor of art history and archaeology and African American studies, and the Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art, Columbia University
Wai-yee Li, the 1879 Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University
Susan Stewart, Avalon Foundation University Professor in the Humanities, professor of English, Princeton University
Johanna Ruth Drucker, the Martin and Bernard Breslauer Professor of Bibliographical Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Dorothy E. Roberts, the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology, the Raymond Pace & Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, University of Pennsylvania
Tracy K. Smith, the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; professor of English and of African and African American studies, Harvard University