The 210 new Fellows and 19 new Foreign Honorary Members recently elected to the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences. Eight members of the MIT community are among them. Established in 1780 by founders of the nation, the academy undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current projects focus on science, technology and global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education. The academy's membership of scholars and practitioners from many disciplines and professions gives it a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary, long-term policy research.

Since the academy's founding, its fellows have included George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

By Vasil Sidorov on April 20, 2009     after MIT Tech Talk