Five professors elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Three Yale faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), considered one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies.The new AAAS fellows from Yale are:

Five Yale faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), considered one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies.
The new AAAS fellows from Yale are:

Nicholas Alexander Christakis, the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Sociology and professor in the Institute for Social and Policy Studies, and the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Medicine (general medicine). Christakis is a sociologist and physician who conducts research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He directs the Human Nature Lab. (Read bio.)

Heather K. Gerken, dean-designate of Yale Law School and the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law. She is a leading expert on constitutional law and election law, and a founder of the “nationalist school” of federalism. She will begin her term as dean on July 1.

Edmund W. Gordon, the John M. Musser Professor Emeritus of Psychology. His career spans professional practice and scholarly life, having served as a minister, clinical and counseling psychologist, research scientist, author, editor, and professor. (Read bio.)

Jacob S. Hacker, the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science and director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Hacker is an expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy whose books include “American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper,” written with Paul Pierson. (Read bio.)

James Q. Whitman, the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law. His major fields of teaching and research are comparative law, conflict of laws, criminal law, and comparative legal history.

All told, the AAAU elected 228 new fellows from among the world’s leaders in the mathematical and physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, as well as the arts, business, public affairs, and the nonprofit sector. Members of the 2017 class include winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the Wolf Prize; MacArthur Fellows; Fields Medalists; Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Arts recipients; and Academy Award, Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award winners.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world. Current AAAS research focuses on education, the humanities, and the arts; science, engineering, and technology policy; global security and international affairs; and American institutions and the public good.

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