Subdivision
| • | 503. Administrators, Bankers and Opinion Leaders from the Public or Private Sectors | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | The Honorable Albert A. Gore | | | 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: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1948 | | | | | | |
In three decades as a widely respected politician and public figure, Albert A. (Al) Gore, Jr. has called attention to, and helped develop solutions to, many of the key issues of our time. During his sixteen years in Congress he supported a range of productive legislation, from progressive environmental policies (he held the first congressional hearings on climate change in the late 1970s and on global warming in the 1980s) to communications initiatives that had a significant effect on the development of the Internet. As vice president in the Clinton administration, he was heavily involved in areas of government from the economy to the environment. Since his near-election to the presidency in 2000, Gore has channeled his environmental expertise into activism, lecturing widely on the climate crisis and starring in the film An Inconvenient Truth, which won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 2007 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize (with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for his "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." Al Gore was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. His book The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change came out in 2013. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot | | | Institution: | Harvard 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: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a sociologist, is a professor of education at Harvard University. She did her undergraduate work in psychology at Swarthmore College (1962-66); studied child development and teaching at Bank Street College of Education (1966-67); and did her doctoral work in sociology of education at Harvard (1968-72). Since joining the faculty at Harvard in 1972, she has been interested in studying the culture of schools, the patterns and structures of classroom life, the relationships between adult developmental themes and teachers' work, and socialization within families, communities and schools. Lawrence-Lightfoot is a prolific author of numerous articles, monographs, and chapters. She has written eight books: Worlds Apart: Relationships Between Families and Schools (1978); Beyond Bias: Perspectives on Classrooms (with Jean Carew, 1979); and The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture (1983), which received the 1984 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association. Her book Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer (1988), which won the 1988 Christopher Award, given for "literary merit and humanitarian achievement," was followed by I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation (1994), and The Art and Science of Portraiture (with Jessica Hoffman Davis, 1997), which documents her pioneering approach to social science methodology -- one that bridges the realms of aesthetics and empiricism. In Respect: An Exploration (1999) Lawrence-Lightfoot reaches deep into human experience to find the essence of this powerful quality. Her newest book, The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn from Each Other (2003), captures the crucial exchange that occurs between parents and teachers across our country an estimated 100 million times a year -- a dialogue that is both mirror and metaphor for the cultural forces that shape the socialization of our children. In addition to her teaching, research, and writing, Lawrence-Lightfoot sits on numerous professional committees and boards of directors, including the Atlantic Philanthropies; the National Academy of Education; WGBH; Bright Horizons Family Solutions; and the Berklee College of Music. She is former chair of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors. Lawrence-Lightfoot has been a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. In 1984, she was the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Prize Award, and in 1993 she was awarded Harvard's George Ledlie Prize given for research that makes the "most valuable contribution to science" and "the benefit of mankind," and in 1995 she became a Spencer Senior Scholar. Lawrence-Lightfoot has been the recipient of 26 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In 1993 the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Chair, an endowed professorship at Swarthmore College, was named in her honor. And in 1998, she was the recipient of the Emily Hargroves Fisher Endowed Chair at Harvard University, which upon her retirement will become the Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Endowed Chair, making her the first African-American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor. Lawrence-Lightfoot was recently named the 2008 Margaret Mead Fellow by the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
| 3 | 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. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Martine A. Rothblatt | | | Institution: | United Therapeutics | | | 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: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1954 | | | | | | |
Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and has served as chairman and chief executive officer since the inception of the company. Prior to creating United Therapeutics, Dr. Rothblatt founded and served as chairman and chief executive officer of Sirius Satellite Radio and was principally responsible for several other unique applications of satellite communications technology. She also represented the radio astronomy interests of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Radio Frequencies before the Federal Communications Commission. On behalf of the International Bar Association, she led efforts to present the United Nations with a draft Human Genome Treaty. She moved to biotechnology from satellite technology and started United Therapeutics in 1996 to find a cure or better treatment for primary pulmonary hypertension that affects one of her daughters, a disease that was deadly at the time. It sells five FDA-approved drugs to help people with the disease. Now publicly traded, the company is experimenting with pig cloning and genetic modification to create lung transplants the human body doesn’t reject.
Dr. Rothblatt received a combined Law and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her Ph.D. in medical ethics from the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary College, University of London. Her book, "Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Public and Private Interests in Xenotransplantation," was published by Ashgate in 2004. Dr. Rothblatt is a member of the International Institute of Space Law and the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Bar Association. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. She received the Meritorious Service to Aviation Award of the NBAA in 2021. | |
| 5 | 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. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Charles M. Vest | | | Institution: | National Academy of Engineering | | | 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: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | Death Date: | December 12, 2013 | | | | | | |
Charles M. Vest was President Emeritus of the National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the time of his death December 12, 2013, at the age of 72, in Washington, DC.
Dr. Vest earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University in 1963, and M.S.E. and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1964 and 1967 respectively. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1968 where he taught in the areas of heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanic, and conducted research in heat transfer and engineering applications of laser optics and holography. He and his graduate students developed techniques for making quantitative measurements of various properties and motions from holographic interferograms, especially the measurement of three-dimensional temperature and density fields using computer tomography. He became an associate professor in 1972 and a full professor in 1977.
In 1981 Dr. Vest turned much of his attention to academic administration at the University of Michigan, serving as associate dean of engineering from 1981-86, dean of engineering from 1986-1989, when he became provost and vice president for academic affairs. In 1990 he became president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and served in that position until December 2004. He then became professor and president emeritus.
As president of MIT, he was active in science, technology, and innovation policy; building partnerships among academia, government and industry; and championing the importance of open, global scientific communication, travel, and sharing of intellectual resources. During his tenure, MIT launched its OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative; co-founded the Alliance for Global Sustainability; enhanced the racial, gender, and cultural diversity of its students and faculty; established major new institutes in neuroscience and genomic medicine; and redeveloped much of its campus.
He was a director of DuPont for 14 years and of IBM for 13 years; was vice chair of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness for eight years; and served on various federal committees and commissions, including the Presidents Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy and the Rice-Chertoff Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee. He served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and foundations devoted to education, science, and technology.
In July 2007 he was elected to serve as president of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for six years and he became president emeritus in 2013. He had authored a book on holographic interferometry, and two books on higher education. He received honorary doctoral degrees from ten universities, was awarded the 2006 National Medal of Technology by President Bush, and won the National Science Board's Vannevar Bush Award in 2011. Charles Vest was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2008. | |
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