Apr

Richard Kurin joins the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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Richard Kurin

April 23, 2015 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced April 21 the election of 197 new members selected from among the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, business, and philanthropic leaders. Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, is among those chosen for the honor of membership

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

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Margaret Mead and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 10, 2015, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The full list of new Academy members can be found here.