Three SAS Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 2006
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced the election of three School of Arts and Sciences faculty among its new fellows. Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor of English; Andrew Postlewaite, Harry P. Kamen Professor of Economics; and Amos Smith, William Warren Rhodes-Robert J. Thompson Professor of Chemistry, are among the 195 scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders who were newly elected to this society, which includes more than 170 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners among its members.
With the addition of these new members, SAS currently has 38 faculty who are fellows of the AAAS. SAS Dean Rebecca Bushnell commented that this year's "recognition of faculty from each of our main disciplinary branches - the arts and letters, the natural sciences, and the social sciences - speaks to the broad nature of our strengths. We are proud to see the accomplishments and distinction of our faculty recognized in this way."
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Professor Bernstein teaches courses on poetry and poetics, with an emphasis on modernist and contemporary art and performance. In addition to his teaching activities, he is a co-director of PENNsound, the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing's digital poetry archive project. Professor Bernstein has been publishing his work for more than three decades, and he is considered a pioneer of "language writing," a movement that began in the mid-1970s and focuses on the structures and codes of language. He has published three collections of essays and over 20 books of poetry, and his poems have appeared in more than 350 literary magazines and anthologies in North America. His recent works include the poetry collections With Strings and Republics of Reality: 1975-1995, as well as the pamphlet World on Fire. In addition, Professor Bernstein has written librettos for five operas including Shadowtime.
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Dr. Postlewaite's research and teaching focus on microeconomic theory, game theory, law and economics, public economics, mathematical economics, and social choice. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a recipient of numerous NSF grants and a Sloan Foundation grant. In addition, he has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank as well as at institutions in ten countries, including the London School of Economics. Dr. Postlewaite has published over 50 articles in refereed journals including recent work on "The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height," Informational Size and Efficient Auctions," "Business Strategy, Human Capital and Managerial Incentives," and "Core Convergence with Asymmetric Information."
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Dr. Smith's research encompasses synthetic chemistry, bioorganicchemistry and materials science. He is internationally known for his outstanding achievements in the area of total synthesis of architecturally complex natural products having important bio-regulatory properties. To date, he and his coworkers have published more than 470 publications in these areas. His many honors include the Japan Research Foundation's Yamada Prize for Optically Active Compounds, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Work in Organic Synthesis. He was recently recognized by the Japanese government with the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to the training and education of Japanese scientists and the promotion of academic exchange between Japan and the U.S.
Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has elected as Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The Academy will welcome this year's new class at its annual Induction Ceremony on October 7, at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.