Axel Meyer elected as member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The biologist from Konstanz is one of the world's leading experts in the field of evolutionary biology
Axel Meyer, PhD, evolutionary biologist from Konstanz, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among the Academy's more than 200 new members are 42 International Honorary Members from 23 countries who are being honoured for their outstanding achievements in academia, the arts, business, government and public affairs. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony in October 2019 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
"With the election of these members, the Academy upholds the ideals of research and scholarship, creativity and imagination, intellectual exchange and civil discourse, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge in all its forms," said David W. Oxtoby, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 2019 class includes the former First Lady Michelle Obama as well as author Jonathan Franzen. They will join other well-known members such as Daniel Barenboim, Bill Gates, Toni Morrison, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martin Scorsese, Denzel Washington and Barack Obama.
As an independent research body, the Academy is committed to cross-disciplinary research involving experts from diverse fields and professions with the aim of finding pragmatic solutions to complex challenges. The Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots who believed that exceptional personalities should work to advance the public good.
In the 18th century, for example, Benjamin Franklin was elected as a member, in the 19th century, Charles Darwin, and in the 20th century, Albert Einstein, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman and Martin Luther King, Jr. The honorees are selected from increasingly diverse fields with a focus on the arts, democracy, education, global affairs and science.
Axel Meyer is one of the world's leading and most widely cited experts in the field of evolutionary biology. He studied in Marburg, Kiel, Miami, Berkeley and Harvard and, at the age of 28, was appointed as assistant professor at the State University in New York, where he became an associate professor with Tenure-Track at the age of 33. He received appointment offers from several internationally leading universities before, at the age of 36, accepting the professorship in Konstanz as successor to Hubert Markl.
His scientific work was honoured with numerous awards, including the Carus Medal from the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2009), the Academy Prize from the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2000) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1996).
For his continuous endeavour to convey complex scientific topics to the general public in an accessible and thought-provoking manner he was awarded the EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences (2007). The magazine Cicero included him in its list of the 500 most important intellectuals in Germany since 2007.
Facts:
- Professor Axel Meyer, PhD, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Around 200 new members in 2019, including 42 International Honorary Members from 23 countries
- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780.