UF professors chosen for American Academy of Arts and Sciences

May 29, 2013

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Two University of Florida professors have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

They are: Robert Dan Holt, Eminent Scholar who holds the Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecology; and Michael Edward Moseley, distinguished professor of anthropology.

The 2013 class includes neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, chemist Xiaowei Zhuang, mathematical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf, educator Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, astronaut and former Sen. John Glenn, actor and director Robert De Niro, musicians Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey and operatic soprano Renée Fleming.

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, and the humanities, arts, and education.

“Election to the Academy honors individual accomplishment and calls upon members to serve the public good,” said Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “We look forward to drawing on the knowledge and expertise of these distinguished men and women to advance solutions to the pressing policy challenges of the day.”

Members of the 2013 class include winners of the Nobel Prize; National Medal of Science; the Lasker Award; the Pulitzer and the Shaw prizes; the Fields Medal; MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships; the Kennedy Center Honors; and Grammy, Emmy, Academy, and Tony awards.

The Academy elected 12 Foreign Honorary Members from Canada, China, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom. They include: Smithsonian archeologist Richard Cooke, playwright Athol Fugard, physicist and Nobel Prize winner Serge Haroche and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on Oct. 12 at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin 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 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.