Three from EECS named to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

MIT News Office

Three EECS faculty members are among four from MIT to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the academy announced this week. Earlier this year, a fourth faculty member was among six from MIT to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, AAAS is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to academy publications, as well as studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.

Those elected to AAAS from EECS are: Dimitri A. Antoniadis, Ray and Maria Stata Professor of Electrical Engineering Emeritus; Anantha P. Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and David R. Karger, professor of electrical engineering. “We are pleased to recognize the excellence of our new members, celebrate their compelling accomplishments, and invite them to join the academy and contribute to its work,” said David W. Oxtoby, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “With the election of these members, the academy upholds the ideals of research and scholarship, creativity and imagination, intellectual exchange and civil discourse, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge in all its forms.”

The MIT faculty members are among 200 leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts elected to the academy’s class for 2019. They will be inducted at a ceremony in Cambridge in October. Since its founding in 1780, the academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Maria Mitchell and Daniel Webster in the 19th century, and Toni Morrison and Albert Einstein in the 20th century. The current membership includes more than 200 Nobel laureates and 100 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Earlier this year, Robert T. Morris, professor of computer science and engineering, was elected to the NAE in recognition of his “contributions to programmable network routers, wireless mesh networks, and networked computer systems.” NAE membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”