| | 21 | Name: | Dr. Kathryn Sikkink | | | Institution: | Harvard University; Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 3. Social Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 304. Jurisprudence and Political Science | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1958 | | | | | | |
In January 2014 Kathryn Sikkink became the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She had been Regent's Professor and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She holds a Ph.D. from ColuIn January 2014 Kathryn Sikkink became the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She had been Regent's Professor and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her publications include The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award, and the WOLA/Duke University Award); Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America; Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (co-authored with Margaret Keck and awarded the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order, and the ISA Chadwick Alger Award for Best Book in the area of International Organizations); The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change (co-edited with Thomas Risse and Stephen Ropp); and The Hidden Face of Rights: Towards a Politics of Responsibilities. Sikkink has been a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina and a Guggenheim fellow. She is a fellow of the American Association for Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the editorial board of the International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, and the American Political Science Review. In 2013 she received the Susan Strange Award from the International Studies Association. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 22 | Name: | Dr. Sarah E. Thomas | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | 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 | | | | | | |
Sarah Thomas was Bodley's Librarian, the first woman and non-British citizen to hold the position since 1602. She headed the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford from 2007 through July 2013. From August 2013 through March 2019 she took up the position of Vice President for the Harvard Library at Harvard University and subsequently was also named University Librarian and Roy E. Larsen Librarian of the Faculty of Arts and Science. She shaped the library's vision to increase focus on user-centered services that connect faculty, students, alumni, and researchers with library resources online and in person. She spearheaded efforts to advance digital scholarship, committing library resources to open access and she advanced collaboration among libraries in areas such as shared storage, shared resources, and shared collections. She was University Librarian at Cornell University from 1996 until 2007. She began her career at Harvard University's Widener Library and has since worked at Johns Hopkins University, the Research Libraries Group (Stanford, CA), the National Agricultural Library, and the Library of Congress. She is a recipient of the Smith College Medal (2009), the Melvil Dewey Award (2007) from the American Library Association, and in 2004 she served as the President of the Association of Research Libraries. From 2013 to 2020 she was a trustee of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition she has served on the boards of OCLC, the Natural History Museum, London, Historic Deerfield, and the Walters Art Gallery. She is a graduate of Smith College, and holds a MS in Library Science from Simmons College, Boston, and a Ph.D. in German literature from the Johns Hopkins University. Sarah Thomas was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 23 | Name: | Dr. J. Craig Venter | | | Institution: | J. Craig Venter Institute; Synthetic Genomics, Inc. | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research. He is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit, research organization with approximately 300 scientists and staff dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic and environmental genomic research, and the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics.
Dr. Venter is also Founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc (SGI), a privately held company dedicated to commercializing genomic-driven solutions to address global needs such as new sources of energy, new food and nutritional products, and next generation vaccines.
Dr. Venter began his formal education after a tour of duty as a Navy Corpsman in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. After earning both a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California at San Diego, he was appointed professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. In 1984, he moved to the National Institutes of Health campus where he developed Expressed Sequence Tags or ESTs, a revolutionary new strategy for rapid gene discovery. In 1992 Dr. Venter founded The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, now part of JCVI), a not-for-profit research institute, where in 1995 he and his team decoded the genome of the first free-living organism, the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, using his new whole genome shotgun technique.
In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed. This research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal, Science. He and his team at Celera also sequenced the fruit fly, mouse and rat genomes.
Dr. Venter and his team at JCVI continue to blaze new trails in genomics. They have sequenced and analyzed hundreds of genomes, and have published numerous important papers covering such areas as environmental genomics, the first complete diploid human genome, and the groundbreaking advance in creating the first self- replicating bacterial cell constructed entirely with synthetic DNA.
Dr. Venter is one of the most frequently cited scientists, and the author of more than 250 research articles. He is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, public honors, and scientific awards, including the 2008 United States National Medal of Science, the 2002 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the King Faisal International Award for Science. Dr. Venter is a member of numerous prestigious scientific organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Microbiology. J. Craig Venter was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 24 | Name: | Dr. Susan R. Wessler | | | Institution: | University of California, Riverside; National Academy of Sciences | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 207. Genetics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1953 | | | | | | |
Susan Wessler is currently University of California President’s Chair at the University of California Riverside and the Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences; the first woman to hold this position. She is a molecular geneticist known for her contributions to the field of transposon biology, specifically on the roles of plant transposable elements in gene and genome evolution. Her laboratory has pioneered the use of computational and experimental analyses in the identification of actively transposing elements. She received her Ph.D. in 1980 in Biochemistry from Cornell University. As a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore (1980-82) she was involved in the molecular isolation of the Ac and Ds transposable elements that were first discovered by Barbara McClintock almost 40 years earlier in maize. She began her career at the University of Georgia in 1983 where she remained until moving to UC Riverside in 2010.
Wessler has contributed extensively to educational initiatives, including co-authorship of the widely used genetics textbook, Introduction to Genetic Analysis. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor (2006), she adapted her research program for the classroom by developing the Dynamic Genome Courses where incoming freshman can experience the excitement of scientific discovery. She is the recipient of several awards including the the inaugural Distinguished Scientist Award (2007) from the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA), the Stephen Hales Prize (2011) from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and the Excellence in Science Award from FASEB (2012). She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1998), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007), the Royal Society (2017), and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 25 | Name: | Dr. Patricia Chapple Wright | | | Institution: | Stony Brook University; Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments; Centre ValBio Research, Madagascar | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 205. Microbiology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Dr. Patricia Chapple Wright has made major contributions in the biology, ecology, conservation and behavior of living primates. She discovered a new species of lemur, Hapalemur aureus in 1987 and helped establish the Ranomafana National Park to protect it. Her research concerns focus on behavior, scenescence, parasitology, predation, rainforest ecology, climate change and conservation studies of Malagasy lemurs. Patricia Wright earned a BA from Hood College in 1966 and a PhD in Anthropology from City University of New York in 1985. Dr. Wright has led over 40 field expeditions to Peru, Paraguay, East Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar. She has held professional appointments at Duke (1983-91) and Stony Brook Universities (1991-2013) and is the Executive Director of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments at Stony Brook (1992-2013) and the Founder and International Director of the Centre ValBio research station in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. In 2019 she was installed as Herrnstein Family Endowed Chair in Conservation Biology. She has authored over 150 scientific publications and is the holder of many high honors. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004) as well as other professional associations. She was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989-1994), a "Knight of the National Order" in 1995, the Officier Medal in 2003 and the Commandeur Medal in 2012 by the government of Madagascar. Dr. Wright has been the recipient of awards including the Hauptman Woodward Pioneer in Science Medal (2008), Distinguished Primatologist Award from American Society of Primatology (2008), honorary degrees from Hood College and the University of Antananarivo and a Distinguished Alumnae Award from Hood College (2008). In 2012 she was a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize for Conservation and in 2014 she won that same award. Her books include Madagascar: Forests of our Ancestors, Tarsiers: Past, Present and Future, and High Moon over the Amazon: My Quest to Understand the Monkeys of the Night. Dr. Wright was a member of the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, and is a member of the Board of NGS Conservation Trust, Duke Lemur Center, Madagascar Fauna Group and IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group. Her work has been featured in the film "Me and Isaac Newton" directed by Michael Apted (1999) and "IMAX 3D Madagascar: Lemurs" directed by David Douglas (2014). Dr. Wright was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 26 | Name: | Dr. Robert Wuthnow | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 3. Social Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 301. Anthropology, Demography, Psychology, and Sociology | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
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| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | | | |
Robert Wuthnow is Gerard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Sociology Emeritus and former director of the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975.
Robert Wuthnow is the leading U.S. scholar in the sociology of religion. He has also been a pioneer in the study of culture and civil society. He has covered such a broad range of crucial topics including the place of politics in religion, the religious socialization of children, the relationship between money and the sacred, the response of congregations to immigration and religious pluralism, the place of music and art in religion, and more. Drawing from extensive interviews and historical investigation he has closely examined religious practice and discourse and offered important overviews of their significance. Wuthnow's contributions are remarkable: 28 solo-authored books, ten edited volumes, and dozens of articles that offer careful portraits of religious life and thought in the United States.
He has won many awards, including the Martin E. Marty Award of the American Academy of Religion in 2003, the Mirra Komarovsky Best Book Award of the Eastern Sociological Society in 2007, the PROSE Award in Theology and Religious Studies of the Association of American Publishers in 2009, the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research, 2009, and the Andrew M. Greeley LIfetime Achivement Award in Sociology of Religion in 2018. His books include: Meaning and Moral Order: Explorations in Cultural Analysis, 1987; Communities of Discourse: Ideology and Social Structure in The Reformation, The Enlightenment and European Socialism, 1989; Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves, 1991; God and Mammon in America, 1994; Learning to Care: Elementary Kindness in an Age of Indifference, 1995; Poor Richard’s Principle: Recovering the American Dream through the Moral Dimension of Work, Business, and Money, 1996; All in Sync: How Music and Art are Revitalizing American Religion, 2003; America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, 2005; Be Very Afraid: The Cultural Response to Terror, Pandemics, Environmental Devastation, Nuclear Annihilation, and Other Threats, 2010; Remaking the Heartland: Middle America Since the 1950s, 2011; Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America’s Heartland, 2012; The God Problem: Expressing Faith and Being Reasonable, 2012; Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future, 2013; Rough Country: How Texas Became America’s Most Powerful Bible-belt State, 2014; In the Blood: Understanding America’s Farm Families, 2015; Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation’s Faith, 2015; American Misfits and the Making of Middle Class Respectability, 2017; The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Small-Town America, 2018; What Happens When We Practice Religion? Textures of Devotion in Ordinary Life, 2020; and Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy, 2021. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Robert Wuthnow was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
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