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Distributed April 25, 2006
Contact Molly de Ramel


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Two Brown Faculty, One Visiting Scholar Elected Fellows of AAAS

Geologist James W. Head III, playwright Paula Vogel, and poet Rosmarie Waldrop have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a distinction of excellence in science, scholarship, business, public affairs and the arts. Head and Vogel are professors at Brown; Rosmarie Waldrop is a visiting scholar.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences have elected three members of the Brown University community as fellows of the honorary society, which includes the world’s leading thinkers in scholarship and science, public affairs and business, and the arts and humanities.

The Academy announced Monday that 175 new fellows and 20 new foreign honorary members were elected to the membership. Those elected include two former presidents of the United States; the chief justice of the United States; a Nobel laureate; winners of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, drama, music, investigative reporting, and non-fiction; a former U.S. poet laureate; and a member of the French senate.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences selects its members through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.

Members of the Brown community in the 226th class of fellows:

Head

James William Head III is a professor of the geological sciences and the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown. His work is instrumental in the transformation of planets from astronomical objects to geological objects and in documentation and understanding of planetary volcanism, tectonism, climate change and the role of those forces in planetary history.

Vogel

Paula Vogel is a professor of English in the Literary Arts Program and the Adele Kellenberg Seaver ’49 Professor of Creative Writing. Her play How I Learned to Drive won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Her other plays include the Obie-award winning The Baltimore Waltz, as well as Desdemona, The Mineola Twins and The Oldest Profession.

Waldrop

Rosmarie Waldrop is a philosophical poet and visiting scholar in the Literary Arts Program. She continues to work at the cutting edge of avant-garde poetry and has produced more than 30 books of poetry. She is also an acclaimed translator and co-editor an publisher of Burning Deck Press, one of the most influential small press publishers of innovative poetry in the United States.

“I am pleased to congratulate these outstanding leaders in their fields on their election to fellowship in the Academy,” said Rajiv Vohra, dean of the faculty at Brown. “From scientific research, to literary distinction, their achievements illustrate the depth and excellence of intellectual life at Brown.”

This year’s new fellows include former Presidents George H.W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton; Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts; Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and Rockefeller University President Sir Paul Nurse; the chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton; actor and director Martin Scorsese; choreographer Meredith Monk; conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; and New York Stock Exchange Chairman Marshall Carter along with leading scientists and scholars from across the nation.

The Academy will welcome this year’s new class at its annual induction ceremony Oct. 7, 2006, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

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