The American Philosophical Society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. The society honors distinguished scientists, social scientists, humanities scholars, artists, and societal leaders with membership in the society. Members have included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Frost, Thomas Edison, Sandra Day O’Connor, Charles Darwin, Toni Morrison, and Albert Einstein.
This year the society granted membership to 33 individuals. Of these eight are African Americans with ties to the academic world in the United States.
Marilyn Raphael, professor of geography, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles
Emery N. Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and of Computational Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School
Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor, department of African American studies, Emory University
Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt, the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, William R. Kimball Professor at the Graduate School of Business, and professor of psychology, Stanford University
James Forman Jr., professor Yale Law School
Kellie Jones, professor of art history and archaeology and African American studies, and the Hans Hofmann Professor of Modern Art, Columbia University
Dorothy E. Roberts, the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology, the Raymond Pace & Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, University of Pennsylvania
Tracy K. Smith, the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; professor of English and of African and African American studies, Harvard University
