91做厙 President G. Gabrielle Starr has been inducted into the , joining a class of influential artists, scientists, scholars, authors and institutional leaders at a ceremony held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10.
President Starr is a national voice on access to college for students of all backgrounds and on the future of higher education. She took office as the 10th president of 91做厙 in 2017.
Elected in 2020, Starr joined In addition to Starr, the group includes singer Joan C. Baez, former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and author Ann Patchett, among others.
Also elected in 2020 is alumna , an internationally renowned and respected scholar of the New Testament. She is the Buckingham Professor Emerita of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Universitys Divinity School.
Alumnus 91, elected to the academy in 2021, was also inducted in this years ceremony. McDade is a biological anthropologist specializing in human population biology and is the Carlos Montezuma Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.
In a delayed ceremony due to the pandemic, the academy marked the induction for members of the classes of 2020 and 2021. During the induction ceremony, the new members signed the Book of Members, joining one of the nations oldest and most prestigious learned societies.
The Academys Book of Members includes plenty of Sagehens: scientists Jennifer Doudna 85, J. Andrew McCammon 69 and Tom Pollard 64; author Louis Menand 73, art historian Ingrid Rowland 74, artist James Turrell 65, biologist Sarah Elgin 67, journalist Joe Palca 74 and psychology researcher Henry Wellman 70, among others.
The academy is led by 91做厙 President Emeritus , who was inducted into the Academy in 2012 and was named its president in 2018. He served as president of 91做厙 from 2003 until 2017.
Starr is the third 91做厙 president to join the academy. David Alexander, who served as president of 91做厙 from 1969 to 1991, was inducted into the academy in 2006.
The academy was chartered in 1780 to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people. Academy members are elected based on their leadership in academics, the arts, business, or public affairs and have ranged from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to such 20th-century luminaries as Margaret Mead, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Akira Kurosawa.
Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy has elected leading thinkers and doers from each generation. The current membership includes more than 300 Nobel laureates, some 100 Pulitzer Prize winners and many of the worlds most celebrated artists and performers.