Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States. The honor puts her in the company of some of history’s most distinguished scholars — a noteworthy membership that includes the founders of the American republic and more than 260 recipients of the Nobel Prize.

The American Philosophical Society (APS) was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge,” and it has played an important role in American cultural and intellectual life for more than 250 years. A scholarly organization of international reputation, the APS promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach.

Jackson, who was elected in the category of mathematical and physical sciences, joins a class of new members in 2007 that includes such distinguished individuals as William A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering; Paul A. Marks, president emeritus of Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; acclaimed novelist Edgar Lawrence (E.L.) Doctorow; Jasper Johns, painter, sculptor, and printmaker; and Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Early members included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and John Marshall. In 1789 the President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, Russian Princes Dashkova, was the first women elected to the Society.  In the 19th century, John James Audubon, Robert Fulton, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and Louis Pasteur were among those elected. Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, and George Marshall were elected to the society in the 20th century.

Today the APS has 960 elected members, including 804 resident members and 156 international members from more than two dozen foreign countries. Each year the society elects new members to its ranks in April, honoring extraordinary accomplishments of top scholars from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Nominations for membership can only be made by resident members.

In the 21st century, the APS sustains its mission in three principal ways: by honoring and engaging leading scholars, scientists, and professionals through elected membership and opportunities for multidisciplinary, intellectual fellowship; by supporting research, discovery, and education through grants and fellowships, lectures, publications, prizes, and exhibitions; and by serving scholars through a research library of manuscripts and other collections internationally recognized for their enduring historic value.

For more information about the American Philosophical Society go to  www.amphilsoc.org.

Background on President Jackson
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is the 18th President of Rensselaer, the oldest technological research university in the U.S.. Described by Time Magazine (2005) as “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science,” President Jackson has held senior leadership positions in government, industry, research, and academe. Describing her as “a national treasure,” the National Science Board selected Jackson as its 2007 recipient of the Vannevar Bush Award for “a lifetime of achievements in scientific research, education, and senior statesman-like contributions to public policy.”

Since her arrival in 1999, Dr. Jackson has fostered an extraordinary renaissance at Rensselaer.  In addition, she is past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2004) and former Chairman of the AAAS Board of Directors (2005), a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, and AAAS. She has advisory roles and involvement in several other prestigious national organizations. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the NYSE Euronext (and is Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board), the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and is a director of several major corporations.

She was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 1995-1999, by U.S. President William J. Clinton. Prior to that, she was a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.  Dr. Jackson holds an S.B. in physics and a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics from M.I.T., and 40 honorary doctoral degrees.

Over the past several years, President Jackson has worked successfully to bring national attention to the underinvestment in basic research and to what she has dubbed the “Quiet Crisis” in America – the threat to the United State’s capacity to innovate due to the looming shortage in the nation’s science and technology workforce. President Jackson notes that, if the U.S. is to maintain its leadership in science and technology, we must increase the number of people choosing to pursue careers in these disciplines, and to do that, we must tap into all of the talent this nation has to offer, including women and minorities – what she calls the “underrepresented majority.”  She has urged a national focus on energy research as a focal point to excite and encourage greater interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, noting that “energy security is the space race of this millennium.”

Contact: Theresa Bourgeois
Phone: (518) 276-2840
E-mail: bourgt@rpi.edu