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04/20/2009
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences today (April 20, 2009) announced the election of Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard to its 2009 class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members.
She joins one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research. Current Fellows include more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
The 2009 Fellows represent scholars, scientists, jurists, writers, artists, civic, and corporate and philanthropic leaders from 28 states and 11 countries – many of them Nobel laureates and recipients of the Pulitzer and Pritzker prizes, MacArthur Fellowships, Academy, Grammy and Tony awards, and the National Medal of Arts.
The new Fellows will be inducted at a ceremony on October 10, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Among the 2009 Fellows are Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela; U2 lead singer and humanitarian advocate Bono; Mario Capecchi, a Nobel Prize laureate in medicine or physiology; biographer Robert Caro; author Thomas Pynchon; actors Dustin Hoffman and James Earl Jones; mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne; singer/songwriter Emmylou Harris; California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George; Defense Secretary Robert Gates; and National Public Radio journalist Susan Stamberg.
“I'm honored to be part of such a distinguished group of Fellows and gratified by the progress we've made in raising public awareness of the urgent need to protect our oceans for the future,” Packard said.
A marine biologist, she has served as executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium since its founding 25 years ago. She is a trustee of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and chairs the board of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Packard served on the Pew Oceans Commission, and is a recipient of the Audubon Medal for Conservation and the Ted Danson Ocean Hero Award.
Since its founding in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences has elected as members the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin 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 undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems, including science, technology and global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education. The Academy’s membership of scholars and practitioners from many disciplines and professions gives it a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary, long-term policy research.
“Since 1780, the Academy has served the public good by convening leading thinkers and doers from diverse perspectives to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing issues of the day,” said Leslie Berlowitz, chief executive officer and William T. Golden Chair. “I look forward to welcoming into the Academy these new members to help continue that tradition.”
“These remarkable men and women have made singular contributions to their fields, and to the world,” said Academy President Emilio Bizzi. “By electing them as members, the Academy honors them and their work, and they, in turn, honor us.”
In 2009 the Monterey Bay Aquarium celebrates 25 years of inspiring ocean conservation.
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Editors: For a complete list of 2009 fellows, visit www.amacad.org/news/newsRelease.aspx.
Photos of Julie Packard are available from Public Relations at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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