The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) has elected three NYU faculty as fellows: Martin Jack Blaser, the George and Muriel Singer Professor of Medicine and professor of microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center; Philosophy Professor David Chalmers; and Politics Professor Alastair Smith.
Other AAAS fellows selected this year include the following: author Martin Amis; actress Sally Field; singer Bruce Springsteen; and astronaut, former senator, and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner John Glenn. A complete list of the 2013 class of new members may be viewed here.
“Election to the Academy honors individual accomplishment and calls upon members to serve the public good,” said Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “We look forward to drawing on the knowledge and expertise of these distinguished men and women to advance solutions to the pressing policy challenges of the day.”
Blaser, also director of the Human Microbiome Program at NYU Langone, has conducted studies establishing a connection between the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and human diseases. His work helped reveal the role of H. pylori in the causation of gastric cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the world.
Chalmers, co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at NYU, works in areas of philosophy and cognitive science. His published works include: “The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory”; “Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings,” an edited volume; and “The Character of Consciousness.”
Smith, a professor in NYU’s Wilf Family Department of Politics and deputy director of NYU’s Alexander Hamilton Center in Political Economy, has authored “Election Timing” and co-authored “The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics,” “The Logic of Political Survival,” and “Punishing the Prince: A Theory of Interstate Relations, Political Institutions, and Leader Change.”
The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 12, 2013, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and others, AAAS has elected as fellows and foreign honorary members the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel Laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.