| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Jorge G. Castañeda | | | Institution: | New York University; National Autonomous University of Mexico | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 3. Social Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 304. Jurisprudence and Political Science | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1953 | | | | | | |
Jorge G. Castañeda has been Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University since 1997. He was Foreign Minister of Mexico for three years under the Vicente Fox administration and served as professor of political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 1978 to 2003. He has also been a visiting professor at Princeton University, the University of California, Berkeley, Cambridge University, the University of Paris and Dartmouth University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris in 1978.
For three decades Jorge Castañeda has been a leading public intellectual, publishing widely in French, English and Spanish. He is the author of numerous books on political mobilization, political succession and international relations. Limits To Friendship: The United States and Mexico (1988) outlines the difficulties of foreign relations with a superpower; The Mexican Shock: Its Meaning for the United States (1995) examines the ways in which free trade has affected binational issues; and Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen (2000) elucidates the byzantine process by which Mexico’s ruling party selected its presidents. He is also the author of Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War (1993) and Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (1997). His most recent book is Ex Mex: Mexicans in the U.S. – from Migrants to Immigrants (2008).
Jorge Castañeda was an outspoken critic of the country’s autocratic political system prior to its transition to open elections in 2000. He has been active with a number of human rights organizations, serving on the board of directors of Human Rights Watch, as a member of Project Syndicate, and as senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Grant in 1989. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 2 | Name: | Sir Alan Roy Fersht | | | Institution: | University of Cambridge | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 102. Chemistry and Chemical Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Alan Fersht is the Herchel Smith Professor of Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University and Director of the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering. He enjoys combining the methods of chemistry with those of molecular biology for studying complex problems in the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine. In particular, he works in the general area of the structure, activity, stability and folding of proteins, and the role of protein misfolding and instability in cancer and disease. He was the first to apply site-directed mutagenesis to analyze the structure and activity of proteins and the strength and specificity of protein interactions and is one of the founders of protein engineering. His current work is mainly in two specific areas. The first is in elucidating at atomic resolution how proteins fold and unfold, using advanced structural and biophysical methods on engineered proteins. His method of Phi-value analysis of mutated proteins is now the standard procedure for experimentally characterizing transition states for protein folding and unfolding and benchmarking simulation at atomic resolution. The second is using the same structural and biophysical methods to study how mutation affects proteins in the cell cycle, particularly the tumor suppressor p53, in order to design novel anti-cancer drugs that function by restoring the activity of mutated proteins. Alan Fersht is a fellow of the Royal Society, a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a member of EMBO and Academia Europea. He has won several international awards, including the FEBS Anniversary Prize (1980); the NOVO Biotechnology Award (1986); the Charmian Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1986); the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society (1991); the Max Tishler Lecture and Prize, Harvard University (1992); the FEBS Data Lecture and Medal (1993); the Jubilee Lecture and Harden Medal of the Biochemical Society (1993); the Feldberg Foundation Prize (1996); the Distinguished Service Award for Protein Engineering, Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium (1997); the Davy Medal of the Royal Society (1998); the Chaire Bruylants (1999); the Natural Products Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1999); the Anfinsen (1999) and Stein and Moore (2001) Awards of the Protein Society; the Bader Award of the American Chemical Society; the Linderstrom-Lang Prize and Medal (2002); the Bijvoet Medal (2008); the G.N. Lewis Medal (2008), and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (2020). He was knighted in 2003 for his work on protein science, and he has honorary degrees from Uppsala, Brussels, Weizmann Institute, Imperial College, The Hebrew University, and Arhus University. He is associate editor of PNAS, senior editor of PEDS, and co-chairman of the editorial board of ChemBioChem. Alan Fersht was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 3 | Name: | Ms. Nadine Gordimer | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | | | Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1923 | | | Death Date: | July 13, 2014 | | | | | | |
Author of fourteen novels and eighteen short story collections, Nadine Gordimer has won prodigious acclaim and respect as a writer and activist, both in her native South Africa and abroad. Her works deal with the moral and psychological issues endemic to her racially divided home country, the political tensions that inevitably result, and the ability of citizens to cope with, and overcome, these divisions. In her stories of ordinary South Africans, Gordimer reveals the layers of moral ambiguity and choice that underlie and shape daily life. From her active opposition to South Africa's apartheid government (her books were banned as a result) to her recent explorations of the AIDS crisis and the complexities of post-apartheid society, Gordimer has used her art as a mirror on, and vehicle for change within, South Africa. For these achievements she was recognized with the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, which noted that Gordimer "through her magnificent epic writing has been of very great benefit to humanity". Her most recent book is No Time Like the Present", published in 2012. Nadine Gordimer was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Jan-Ake Gustafsson | | | Institution: | Karolinska Institute; University of Houston | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 201. Molecular Biology and Biochemistry | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Jan-Åke Gustafsson, M.D., Ph.D., has played a pivotal role in discoveries of how nuclear receptors in the cell mediate actions of hormones and nutrients to regulate gene expression. Dr. Gustafsson is Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Novum, Karolinska University Hospital at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Gustafsson first described the three-domain structure of nuclear receptors, defined the function of these domains, and determined how the DNA-binding mechanism mediates nuclear receptor activities in the cell. He also was the first to discover that fatty acids are natural activators of the peroxisome proliferator activated nuclear receptor (PPAR), thus stimulating the investigation of the role of PPARs in lipid metabolism. Furthermore, Dr. Gustafsson discovered a second type of estrogen receptor (ER?) as well as a nuclear receptor that is important in cholesterol metabolism (LXR?). Dr. Gustafsson received his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1964, his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1968 and his M.D. degree in 1971, all from the Karolinska Institute. He was named a professor of chemistry at the Institute in 1976, and to his current posts in 1979. In 1987, he founded KaroBio AB, a biotechnology company based at the Karolinska Institute, initially supported by pension and government funds. Career/Academic Appointments: 1964 Bachelor of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 1971 Associate Professor in Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet 1976 Professor of Chemistry, Karolinska Institutet 1978 Professor of Chemistry, University of Gothenburg 1979 Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Medical Nutrition, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet 2006-present Professor of Medical Nutrition and Chairman of the Dept of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet Among the honors he has received during his career are: The Svedberg Prize in chemistry in 1982, the Fernström Prize of the Karolinska Institute in 1983, the Anders Jahre Prize in 1992, the Gregory Pincus Medal and Award of the Worcester Foundation in 1994, the Söderberg Prize in Medicine in 1998, the European Medal of the British Society for Endocrinology in 2000, the Lorenzini Gold Medal in 2001, the Fred Conrad Koch Award from the Endocrine Society in the U.S. in 2002, the Bristol-Meyers Squibb/Mead Johnson Award for Nutrition Research in 2004, the Geoffrey Harris Prize in 2009, the Award of Merit of the Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund in 2009, the Grand Nordic Fernstrom Prize of the University of Lund in 2009, and the Grand Silver Medal of the Karolinska Institutet in 2011. Dr. Gustafsson was elected to the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1997, to the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 1998, became a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and a foreign honorary member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2002. In 2002 he was Chairman of the Nobel Assemly of the Karolinska Institutet. Jan-Åke Gustafsson was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Christiane Klapisch-Zuber | | | Institution: | École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 4. Humanities | | | Subdivision: | 404a | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | | | | |
Christiane Klapisch-Zuber is the former Director of Studies at the Centre de Recherches Historiques, l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. She has been a pioneer in the study of family history and genealogy, with special reference to the lives of young girls, women, and artisans. Her groundbreaking study of the Florentine tax records of 1429, coauthored with David Herlihy, changed the course of the economic and social history of the family in early modern Italy, and was based on unprecedented statistical analysis. In subsequent research she investigated such original topics as family ritual in relation to naming, the phenomenon of the family tree as an image and scheme, the history of adoption, and the imaginary power of ancestors. Klapisch-Zuber has approached the history of "the petit peuple" of late medieval and early modern France and especially Italy from both micro- and macro- historical viewpoints. More recently she has turned her attention to the lineage of Florentine magnates and their relationship to the popolani in the fourteenth century. Her generosity as a scholar is legendary, as is her capacity to construct new historical narratives through extraordinary mining of the archives. Widely influential in several fields, Klapisch-Zuber is a truly international figure who has changed the course of historical research, and her many brilliant essays are widely translated in anthologies. Christiane Klapisch-Zuber was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. In 2016 she was awarded the Middle Ages Prince Provins. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Itamar Rabinovich | | | Institution: | Tel Aviv University; New York University | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | 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: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1942 | | | | | | |
Itamar Rabinovich is the incumbent of the Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History of Tel Aviv University. He recently completed an eight year term as the university president. Professor Rabinovich has been a member of the Tel Aviv University faculty since 1971 and served as chairman of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, director of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, dean of humanities and rector. He progressed through the academic ranks and was promoted to full professor of Middle Eastern history and was also made incumbent of the Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History. Between 1992 and 1996 Professor Rabinovich was on leave from Tel Aviv University and in government service. During these years he served as Israel's Ambassador to the United States and as chief negotiator with Syria. Professor Rabinovich is the author of numerous books and other academic works. He is the author of five books on the modern history and politics of the Middle East and the co-author and co-editor of several other volumes. His most recent books are The Brink of Peace , Waging Peace and The View from Damascus . Over the years, Professor Rabinovich held numerous public positions in Israel and in other countries. He is currently chairman of the board of the Dan David Foundation, chairman of the advisory board of the Wexner-Israel Program, a member of the International Advisory Board of the Brookings Institution in Washington and a member of the board of Bank Leumi, USA, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the American Interest. He recently joined the International Advisory Council of APCO Worldwide. Professor Rabinovich has held visiting appointments in several academic institutions, including the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Toronto. He was for several years the Andrew White Professor at Large at Cornell University, and has recently been appointed as Charles and Andrea Bronfman Distinguished Fellow at the Saban Center, Brookings Institution, Distinguished Global Professor at New York University and Visiting Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Professor Rabinovich has been awarded the Honorary Grand Golden Cross of the Austrian Republic and was made a Commandeur l'ordre des Palmes Academiques by the Government of the French Republic. In 2014 he was honored with the Scholar-Statesman Award of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Itamar Rabinovich was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 7 | Name: | Ms. Helen Suzman | | | Institution: | Helen Suzman Foundation | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | 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: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1917 | | | Death Date: | January 1, 2009 | | | | | | |
In thirty-six years as a member of the South African Parliament, Helen Suzman worked tirelessly to bring democracy to her native land. The sole parliamentarian unequivocally opposed to apartheid from 1961 to 1974, she stood alone, in a divided, patriarchal society, as a progressive voice for equality and human rights. Confronting difficult and unpopular issues head on, she fought for universal suffrage, visited prisons and publicly challenged pro-apartheid officials. In a famous exchange with a fellow parliamentarian who suggested that her questions embarrassed her country overseas, Suzman replied, "It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa, it is your answers." In 1996 Suzman stood with Nelson Mandela as he signed South Africa's new constitution. Since then, she has founded her own foundation to further promote the principles - liberty, equality, empowerment for the powerless - to which she devoted her political career. A two-time nominee for the Nobel Prize, Helen Suzman was voted one of the "100 Greatest South Africans" of all time in 2004. She was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Menahem E. Yaari | | | Institution: | The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Hebrew University of Jerusalem | | | Year Elected: | 2008 | | | Class: | 3. Social Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 302. Economics | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1935 | | | | | | |
Menahem Yaari is a former President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and S.A. Schonbrunn Professor of Mathematical Economics Emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University (1962) and taught at Yale University from 1962-67. Yaari's seminal work is his 1965 paper "Uncertain Lifetime, Life Insurance, and the Theory of the Consumer," in which he developed a pioneering model of optimum saving under uncertainty about longevity and the role of competitive annuity markets. The paper became a classic and its central theorem that individuals should invest all their savings in deferred annuities has started a new branch of economic theory with numerous articles and thousands of citations. The paper, "A Model of Fixed Capital without Substitution", written jointly with two Nobel-prize winners, Solow and Tobin, and with Ch. V. Weisazacker, made a major contribution to the theory of technical progress and growth. It formulated the first model of technical progress embodied in capital, leading to a shift in theory and empirical studies towards the need for replacing functioning equipment that has become obsolete. His paper on "Changing Tastes" is recognized as a forerunner of the modern theory of behavioral economics (bounded rationality). Finally, his paper on "The Dual Theory of Choice under Risk" has developed a new widely used game-theoretic approach to decision and measures of risk aversion. Yaari's election as head of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities is a recognition of his standing and contributions to Israeli academia and to intellectual discourse in the country. He is also a member of the International Scientific Committee of the Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization, which works to bring together Israeli and Palestinian scholars, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1988). Menahem Yaari was elected an international member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
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