American Academy of Arts and Sciences adds seven UCLA faculty members
By Ryan Leou
April 26, 2016 12:41 a.m.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected seven UCLA faculty members to the organization Thursday.
The elected professors come from varying academic backgrounds, including music, social sciences and natural sciences, according to a statement from UCLA. 213 members were elected this year, and 144 UCLA faculty are members of the Academy.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780, is an independent research center that gives policy advice to decision-makers in government, academic and private sectors.
New academy members include social science researchers, including history professor Robin Kelley and Buddhist studies professor Robert Buswell.
Buswell, director of the Center for Buddhist Studies, has published nearly 60 books and articles on various aspects of the Korean, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhism.
Other faculty in the academy conduct research in the physical and life sciences, including Kelsey Martin, interim dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine, biology professor Steven Jacobsen, geography professor Glen MacDonald and astrophysics Professor Emeritus Roberto Peccei.
Jacobsen studies epigenetic gene regulation, and Peccei researches the effects of subatomic particles.
Wayne Shorter, a Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist, composer and professor at the Herb Alpert School of Music, was the only new member from UCLA who works in the arts.
The academy’s membership includes about 4,600 fellows and 600 foreign honorary members. This year’s incoming class includes winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship and the Fields Medal.
New members will be inducted at a ceremony on Oct. 8, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
