APS Member History

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	Name:	James W. Alexander
	Year Elected:	1928
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1888
	Death Date:	10/23/71

	Name:	Dr. Elizabeth Alexander
	Institution:	Mellon Foundation
	Year Elected:	2020
	Class:	5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs
	Subdivision:	503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors
	Residency:	resident
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1962

	Elizabeth Alexander - poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate - is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. With more than two decades of experience leading innovative programs in education, philanthropy, and beyond, Dr. Alexander builds partnerships at Mellon to support the arts and humanities while strengthening educational institutions and cultural organizations across the world. Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Alexander served as the director of Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, shaping Ford’s grantmaking vision in arts and culture, journalism, and documentary film. There, she co-designed the Art for Justice Fund-an initiative that uses art and advocacy to address the crisis of mass incarceration-and guided the organization in examining how the arts and visual storytelling can empower communities. Over the course of a distinguished career in education, Dr. Alexander has taught and inspired a generation of students. She was the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University from 2015 until joining the Foundation in 2018. Between 2000 and 2015, Dr. Alexander taught at Yale University, where she was a professor in the departments of African American Studies, American Studies, and English, helping rebuild the school's African American Studies department while serving as its chair for four years. In 2015, she was appointed Yale University's inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry. At Smith College, Dr. Alexander was the Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence and the inaugural director of the Poetry Center. While an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, she was awarded the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. An author or co-author of fourteen books, Dr. Alexander was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize: for poetry with American Sublime and for biography with her 2015 memoir, The Light of the World. Her poetry and essays include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 (2010), Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007), American Sublime (2005), The Black Interior: Essays (2004), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), Body of Life (1996), and The Venus Hottentot (1990). Accolades for her work include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes for Poetry. In 2009, Dr. Alexander composed and delivered a poem, "Praise Song for the Day," for President Barack Obama's inauguration. Alexander earned a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale University, Haverford College, Simmons College, and the College of St. Benedict. Dr. Alexander is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and serves on the board of the Pulitzer Prize. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020.

	Name:	Paul Alexandroff
	Year Elected:	1946
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1896
	Death Date:	11/16/82

	Name:	Dr. Hannes Olof G. Alfvén
	Institution:	Royal Institute of Technology
	Year Elected:	1971
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Subdivision:	106. Physics
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1908
	Death Date:	4/2/95

	Name:	Francis Alison
	Year Elected:
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1705
	Death Date:	11/28/1779

	Francis Alison (1705–28 November 1779) was a Presbyterian minister and educator and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1744. Born in Ireland and educated in Scotland, he immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1735. Ordained as the minister of the New London Presbyterian Church, Alison maintained his belief in the formal training and education of ministers during the series of revivals known as the Great Awakening. Alison’s commitment to education became manifest in 1743 when he chartered the New London Academy (a progenitor of the University of Delaware). There he taught Latin and logic and educated a number of students who would later become APS members and signers of the Declaration of Independence. He served in leadership positions at the Academy of Philadelphia and the College of Philadelphia and was the director of the Library Company from 1757 to 1765. In 1759, while serving as a minister to the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Alison chartered two life insurance corporations to care for aging Presbyterian ministers and their widows and families. Though his intellectual strengths were in the classics, his interests also included natural history and botany. When British forces occupied the city during the American Revolution, Alison fled Philadelphia. Upon his return, he joined others in calling for the revival of APS meetings. (PI, ANB, DNB, DAB)

	Name:	Robert H. Alison
	Year Elected:	1878
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Death Date:	10/7/02

	Name:	Dr. A. Paul Alivisatos
	Institution:	University of Chicago
	Year Elected:	2015
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Subdivision:	102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1959

	Dr. A. Paul Alivisatos is President of the University of Chicago where he also serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and Chair of the Board of Directors of Fermi Research Alliance LLC, the operator of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is also the John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College. Previously he was Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of California, Berkeley. He also direced the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute (ENSI), and held professorships in UC Berkeley’s departments of materials science and chemistry. In addition, he is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Life Tech. He also served as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) until accepting the Vice Chancellor position in 2016. Dr. Alivisatos received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1981 from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1986. He began his career with UC Berkeley in 1988 and with Berkeley Lab in 1991. Groundbreaking contributions to the fundamental physical chemistry of nanocrystals are the hallmarks of Dr. Alivisatos’s distinguished career. His research breakthroughs include the synthesis of size- and shape-controlled nanoscrystals, and forefront studies of nanocrystal properties, including optical, electrical, structural and thermodynamic. In his research, he has demonstrated key applications of nanocrystals in biological imaging and renewable energy. He played a critical role in the establishment of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy’s Nanoscale Science Research Center; and was the facility’s founding director. He is the founding editor of Nano Letters, a leading scientific publication in nanoscience. Dr. Alivisatos has been recognized for his accomplishments, with awards such as the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Linus Pauling Medal, the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, the Eni Italgas Prize for Energy and Environment, the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics, the Wilson Prize, the Coblentz Award for Advances in Molecular Spectroscopy, the American Chemical Society Award for Colloid and Surface Science, the Von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society, the 2014 ACS Materials Chemistry Award, and most recently, the National Medal of Science. In January 2017 he was awarded the National Academy of Sciences' Award in Chemical Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2015.

	Name:	Dr. Claude Jean Allègre
	Institution:	Institut Physique du Globe de Paris
	Year Elected:	1992
	Class:	1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
	Subdivision:	105. Physical Earth Sciences
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Living
	Birth Date:	1937

	Claude Allègre was a professor of geochemistry at the University of Paris VI (Pierre and Marie Curie) since 1970, and became professor emeritus at the Institut Physique du Globe de Paris in 2009. He is a world leader in isotope geochemistry and is responsible for bringing this research area into flower in France. His research in a wide variety of isotopic problems with particular emphasis on earth structure and earth dynamics has been of continuing excitement to the scientific community throughout the world. He has been active in unifying the earth sciences community in Europe and is a founder of the European Union of Geosciences, for which he served as president. Dr. Allègre has also been active politically, having served as Minister of Education of France from 1997 to 2000. He has been a major leader in revitalizing science education and research in France. A brilliant and stimulating speaker with wide interests, Dr. Allègre is the author of three books on the development of geosciences for a general audience. His scientific accomplishments have been recognized with many medals and honors, including the Day Medal of the Geological Society of America and the V.M. Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society. In 1986 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him the Crafoord Prize for his work in isotope geochemistry with G.J. Wasserburg.

	Name:	Andrew Allen
	Year Elected:
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1740
	Death Date:	3/7/1825

	Andrew Allen (June 1740–7 March 1825) was a lawyer and public official, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, the second son of Chief Justice (and APS member) William Allen, he completed his coursework at the College of Philadelphia in 1758 before traveling to England to study law. Upon his return to Philadelphia he launched a successful legal practice and in 1765 was admitted to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, He then assumed a slew of public offices, including attorney-general, member of the Governor’s Council, and Recorder of Philadelphia. In addition to the APS, Allen was involved in a number of Philadelphia institutions: he was a trustee of the Academy at Newark, Delaware, and the College of Philadelphia and a subscriber to the Silk Society and City Tavern. While he was a moderate supporter of colonial resistance to imperial taxation, he chiefly promoted reconciliation with Britain. Leading up to the American Revolution, he held a number of positions that speak to patriot leaders’ confidence in his abilities, including serving as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. By 1776, he had ceased attending Congress, which aroused suspicion of disloyalty. Having left Philadelphia alongside evacuating British forces in 1778, Allen felt that exile was his only option and removed to England. Encouraged by a pardon from Pennsylvania’s governor, he briefly returned to Philadelphia in 1793 to attend the marriage of his daughter. But he would spend the remainder of his life in England trying to recover his property in America while living on a government pension. In addition to his father, his brothers James and John Allen, uncle James Hamilton, and brother-in-law John Penn were also APS members. (PI, DAB)

	Name:	James Allen
	Year Elected:
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1742
	Death Date:	9/18/1778

	James Allen (c. 1742–18 September 1778) was a lawyer and public official, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, the third son of Chief Justice (and APS member) William Allen, he completed his coursework at the College of Philadelphia in 1758 before traveling to England to study law with his brother, APS member Andrew Allen, in 1761. Returning from England in 1764, he eventually opened a law practice which produced the income to which he was accustomed. He then assumed a number of public offices, including alderman and member of the Philadelphia City Council. While he joined other moderate Whigs in opposing the Stamp Act, he primarily sought reconciliation between Britain and the colonies. He was elected as a delegate to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1776, but true to form, he voted against a special convention to draft a new frame of government. With his career in politics concluded, he retired to his home, Trout Hall, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. But this withdrawal from the public arena failed to shield him from the suspicions generated by his brothers’ involvement with British officials. Allen was arrested and brought back to Philadelphia in late 1776. Personal connections to members of the Council of Safety later allowed him to return to Allentown, but financial troubles brought on by depreciating currency and attacks on his property made peace elusive. Save for the brief respite he enjoyed while living in Philadelphia during British occupation, his health declined during 1777 and he died in the fall of 1778. In addition to his father, his brothers Andrew and John Allen, uncle James Hamilton, and brother-in-law John Penn were also APS members. (PI)

	Name:	John Allen
	Year Elected:
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1739
	Death Date:	2/2/1778

	John Allen (March 1739–2 February 1778) was a public official and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, the eldest son of Chief Justice (and APS member) William Allen, he enrolled in the College of Philadelphia. But rather than continue his studies, he then traveled abroad with his kinsman and APS member Joseph Shippen, Jr., and the artist Benjamin West, visiting Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and England. Upon his return to Philadelphia in 1762, Allen was elected to the Common Council. He visited England again in 1766 and 1771 and frequently traveled elsewhere on business; these absences forced him to turn down a number of positions on charitable boards. Despite some gestures of support for the colonial cause early on in the Revolutionary War, Allen never condoned separation from Britain. In the mid-1770s, he moved to New Jersey, where he was elected to the Provincial Congress in 1776, but his increasingly unpopular aversion to independence ultimately led him to abandon his seat. Under the protection of the British army he fled to New York late in 1776 but returned to Philadelphia during the British occupation a year later. He died there in 1778. In addition to his father, his brothers Andrew and James Allen, uncle James Hamilton, and brother-in-law John Penn were also APS members. (PI)

	Name:	William Allen
	Year Elected:
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	8/5/1704
	Death Date:	9/6/1780

	William Allen (5 August 1704–6 September 1780) was a jurist, politician, merchant, and landowner, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, Allen voyaged to England in 1720 to study law at London’s Middle Temple. Following his father’s death in 1725, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he expanded his landholdings through speculation and improved them with copper mines and ironworks. Along with his mercantile ventures, these projects made possible the lavish lifestyle to which he’d grown accustomed in England. As one of the wealthiest men in the colony, Allen donated to the Pennsylvania Hospital and the College of Philadelphia, of which he was also a trustee. He was a patron of the painters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, and he loaned the local government the funds needed to purchase the land on which Independence Hall was built. Allen’s social prestige paved the way for a successful political career. In 1727 he became a member of the Philadelphia Council, and from 1730 to 1739 he led the proprietary party in the Pennsylvania Assembly alongside his father-in-law Andrew Hamilton. In 1750 Allen’s brother-in-law, Pennsylvania Governor (and APS member) James Hamilton, named him Chief Justice of the state’s Supreme Court. Allen continued to lead the proprietary party during its acrimonious disputes with the Quaker party during the French and Indian War. Although he traveled to England in 1763 to oppose the Sugar Act and proposed Stamp Act, he spent the next decade advocating a compromise between Britain and the colonies. When the plan for reconciliation outlined in his American Crisis (1774) failed to garner support, he withdrew from office and retired to England, returning to Philadelphia in 1779. His sons John, Andrew, and James Allen and son-in-law John Penn were APS members. (PI, ANB, DNB, DAB)

	Name:	Benjamin Allen
	Year Elected:	1812
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1772
	Death Date:	7/20/1836

	Name:	George Allen
	Year Elected:	1856
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1808
	Death Date:	5/28/1876

	Name:	W.H. Allen
	Year Elected:	1858
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1808
	Death Date:	4/19/1882

	Name:	Harrison Allen
	Year Elected:	1867
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1841
	Death Date:	11/14/1897

	Name:	Joel A. Allen
	Year Elected:	1878
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1838
	Death Date:	8/29/21

	Name:	Alfred H. Allen
	Year Elected:	1898
	Residency:	International
	Living? :	Deceased

	Name:	Charles E. Allen
	Year Elected:	1922
	Class:	2. Biological Sciences
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1872
	Death Date:	6/25/54

	Name:	Don Cameron Allen
	Year Elected:	1958
	Class:	4. Humanities
	Residency:	Resident
	Living? :	Deceased
	Birth Date:	1904
	Death Date:	8/4/72

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