Press Release - Incoming Chancellor Named to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
May 1, 2002
Incoming Chancellor Named to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
William E. "Brit" Kirwan, incoming chancellor for the University
System of
Maryland (USM) and the current president of Ohio State University, has been
elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS), the
nation's preeminent learned society and research institution.
AAAS announced Kirwan's election on April 30 as one of 177 Fellows and 30
Foreign Honorary Members in the class of 2002. He is joined by one current
and one former U.S. Senator, three other college presidents, three Nobel
Prize winners, six Pulitzer Prize winners, three MacArthur fellows and six
Guggenheim fellows.
"I am deeply honored and completely surprised to be recognized in this way
by the Academy," Kirwan said from his office at Ohio State. "I was
unaware
that I had even been nominated. In fact, I learned this news from an
e-mail
message sent by an Academy member late last night. Needless to say, I was
too excited to get much sleep."
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman, violinist
Itzhak Perlman, Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston, author and physician
Oliver Sacks, National Medal Of Science For Research On Mental Illness
recipient Nancy C. Andreasen, and Nobel Prize winning chemist George Olah
are among this year's new Fellows. This year's election maintains the
Academy's practice of honoring intellectual achievement, leadership and
creativity in all fields. A full list of new members is available on the
AAAS website, http://www.amacad.org/members/new2002list.htm.
"The Academy is pleased to welcome these outstanding and influential
individuals to the nation's most illustrious learned society. Election to
the American Academy is the result of a highly competitive process that
recognizes those who have made preeminent contributions to all scholarly
fields and professions," said Patricia Meyer Spacks, AAAS president.
"The
Academy is pleased to welcome these outstanding and influential individuals
to the nation's most illustrious learned society."
The Academy will welcome this year's new Fellows and Foreign Honorary
Members at its annual induction ceremony at the AAAS headquarters in
Cambridge, Mass. on October 5.
Kirwan assumes the chancellorship of the University System of Maryland on
August 1. He succeeds Donald N. Langenberg, who retired on April 30.
The Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock
and other scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may
tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free,
independent, and virtuous people."
The Academy has elected as Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members the best and
brightest leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben
Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the
19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current
membership includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize
winners.
Contact:
Chris Hart
Phone: 301/445-2739
E-mail: chart@usmd.edu
