American Academy of Arts and Sciences Elects APS Leaders as Members

Several APS leaders, including APS Past President Robert W. Levenson, APS Past Board Member Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Current Directions in Psychological Science Editor Randall W. Engle, have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The psychological researchers are among a new class of 213 accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders that includes President Barack Obama, US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Oscar-winning actor/director Tom Hanks.

Levenson, a University of California, Berkeley professor of psychology, is known for his groundbreaking work applying psychophysiology and affective neuroscience to the study of emotion, aging, and martial interactions. Barrett, of Northeastern University, works at the forefront of research on the nature of emotion. Engle, Georgia Institute of Technology, is a leading expert on attention, intelligence, and memory.

Other APS Fellows in the 2018 class include:

Robert Cialdini, Arizona State University, an authority on the science of persuasion and influence; Susan Levine, University of Chicago, a prominent scholar on cognitive
development; Catherine Lord, Weill Cornell Medical College, founding director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at New York–Presbyterian Hospital; Michael Hasselmo, Boston University, an expert on the neurophysiological and behavioral basis of memory; Jill G. de Villiers, Smith College, whose work focuses on language acquisition and cognitive development; and Marta Kutas, University of California, San Diego, a leading authority on how meaning is constructed in the brain.

The American Academy, a leading center for independent policy research and one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States, has more than 4,600 fellows and 600 honorary foreign members. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony in October at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.