Daniels named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

President Mitch Daniels has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. The new class of more than 200 members recognizes achievements of individuals in academia, the arts, business, government and public affairs.

“One of the reasons to honor extraordinary achievement is because the pursuit of excellence is so often accompanied by disappointment and self-doubt,” said David W. Oxtoby, president of the academy. “We are pleased to recognize the excellence of our new members, celebrate their compelling accomplishments, and invite them to join the academy and contribute to its work.”

In addition to Daniels, the 239th class of members also includes poet and foundation president Elizabeth Alexander (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), chemical and biological engineer Kristi S. Anseth (University of Colorado Boulder and a Purdue alumna), artist Mark Bradford, gender theorist Judith Butler (University of California, Berkeley), economist Xiaohong Chen (Yale University), neuro-oncologist Robert B. Darnell (Rockefeller University), journalist James M. Fallows (The Atlantic), author Jonathan Franzen, cell biologist Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz (Howard Hughes Medical Institute), data science and technology expert James Manyika (McKinsey & Company), former first lady Michelle L.R. Obama, business leader Charles H. Robbins (Cisco Systems), mathematician Sylvia Serfaty (New York University), philosopher Tommie Shelby (Harvard University), actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, and paleoclimatologist Lonnie G. Thompson (Ohio State University).

Daniels joins eight current Purdue members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Those previously elected to membership are Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering; R. Graham Cooks, the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Leah H. Jamieson, the Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of engineering education (by courtesy) and the John A. Edwardson Dean Emerita of Engineering; H. Jay Melosh, Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Physics; Ei-ichi Negishi, Nobel laureate and the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor of Chemistry; Michael Rossmann, the Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences; and Freydoon Shahidi, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.

The 2019 class will be inducted at a ceremony in October in Cambridge, Massachusetts.