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IU's McRobbie, Sanders, Carmines elected to Academy of Arts and SciencesApr 18, 2012 (Herald-Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie is the first sitting IU president to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He becomes the fourth IU president to be elected to the prestigious academy. McRobbie will be joined by IU faculty members Scott Russell Sanders and Edward G. Carmines in the academy's class of 2012. According to its own literature, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences includes some of the world's most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, and humanities and the arts. Founded in 1780, the academy is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The current roster of membership includes 4,000 American fellows and 600 foreign honorary members. Previous IU presidents, all elected after their terms, include John Merle Coulter (1891-93), Herman B Wells (1938-62) and Thomas Ehrlich (1987-94). Among the well-known names also elected this year are: playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, film actors and directors Clint Eastwood and Mel Brooks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, television journalist Judy Woodruff, philanthropist Melinda F. Gates and Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos. The academy also elected 17 Foreign Honorary Members, including recording artist and former Beatle Paul McCartney. A native of Australia, McRobbie joined IU in 1997 as the university's first vice president for information technology. He also served as vice president for research and IU Bloomington interim provost before becoming president. He holds faculty appointments in computer science, philosophy, cognitive science, informatics, library and information science, and computer technology, and has been an active researcher in information technology and logic, according to IU Communications. "President McRobbie's election to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences is a fitting acknowledgment of his scholarly accomplishments and, equally important, his vigorous support of quality research at Indiana University. I can think of no one more deserving of this honor than this scholar, teacher and educational leader," IU Trustee Bruce Cole said in a prepared statement. Carmines directs the Center on American Politics and is research director of the Center on Congress at IU. He has published widely in major political science journals, focusing on American politics, especially elections, public opinion and political behavior. He is a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where he is working on a book about the increased polarization of party politics in the United States and the mismatch between political elites and the American public. Sanders is an essayist and fiction writer whose concerns include nature, community, family, ethics and place. He writes about Bloomington, the hill country of southern Indiana and the Midwest, often addressing issues such as social inequity, militarism and the degradation of Earth's living systems. His 22 published books include "A Conservationist Manifesto," "A Private History of Awe," "Wilderness Plots: Tales About the Settlement of the American Land," "The Force of Spirit" and the recently published essay collection "Earth Works." He received the 2011 Cecil Woods Award for Nonfiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the 2010 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award. He earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1971. "Both Scott and Ted personify the distinguished and exceptional scholars, from multiple disciplines, who comprise the academy's membership," Larry Singell, dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, said in a prepared statement. "This is a richly deserved personal recognition for both of them, and follows their decades of outstanding scholarship and teaching here in the college. We congratulate them on this recognition and commend the academy for honoring Ted and Scott for their extraordinary intellect." The class will be inducted Oct. 6 at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. An alphabetical list of the 220 new members is online at www.amacad.org/news/alphalist2012.pdf. The new class listed by discipline is available at www.amacad.org/news/classlist2012.pdf. ___ (c)2012 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |