Two scholars affiliated with UC Santa Cruz have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), one of the most prestigious honors bestowed upon the world's leading scientists, academics, artists, businesspeople, and public leaders.
Former chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood and Michael Soulé, professor emeritus of environmental studies, were among the 213 new fellows and honorary members announced this week.
Greenwood, now UC provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, served as chancellor of the UCSC campus from 1996 to 2004. She also holds a UCSC appointment as professor of biology. In her current post, she is UC's highest-ranking woman.
Soulé, who joined the UCSC faculty in 1989, has been called "the father of conservation biology." He is a cofounder of the Wildlands Project and the Society for Conservation Biology. Now living in Colorado, Soulé has written and edited many books on biology and conservation biology, including Conservation Biology: An Evolutionary-Ecological Perspective with B. A. Wilcox; Conservation and Evolution with O. H. Frankel; Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity; Viable Populations for Conservation; Research Priorities for Conservation Biology with K. A. Kohm; Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction with Gary Lease, a UCSC professor of history of consciousness; and Continental Conservation: Scientific Foundations of Regional Reserve Networks with John Terborgh.
Soulé has conducted pioneering research in various fields, including population and evolutionary biology, population genetics, island biogeography, environmental studies, biodiversity policy, and ethics. His most recent work focuses on the genetic basis of fitness and viability in natural populations, on the impacts of "keystone" species, and on the social causes of the destruction of nature worldwide. He was previously elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Archie Carr Medal.
"It gives me great pleasure to welcome these outstanding leaders in their fields in this, the Academy's 225th year," said Academy President Patricia Meyer Spacks. "Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large."
Fellows and foreign honorary members are nominated and elected to the academy by current members. The academy will welcome this year's new honorees at its annual induction ceremony on October 8 at AAAS headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an international learned society that promotes service and study through analysis of critical social and intellectual issues and the development of practical policy alternatives.
A complete list of newly elected members and their affiliations is available on the academy web site at www.amacad.org.
