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Three faculty members elected to American Philosophical Society

| 01 June 2009

Three University of California, Berkeley, faculty members have been elected to the American Philosophical Society, the nation's oldest learned society comprised of nearly 1,000 eminent scholars from a broad range of disciplines.

The new members are Anthony A. Long, professor of classics and the Irving Stone Professor of Literature; Robert Tjian, professor of molecular and cell biology and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and James W. Valentine, professor emeritus of integrative biology and faculty curator emeritus of UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology.

The three UC Berkeley faculty members were among 35 new members elected at the society's spring general meeting, which took place April 23-25 in Philadelphia. Among the new members are composer Philip Glass, pianist Emanuel Ax, businessman Warren Buffett, playwright A. R. Gurney, former U.S. secretary of health and human services Donna Shalala and financier George Soros.

The new electees bring to 38 the total number of UC Berkeley faculty who are members of the society.

The American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources and community outreach.