Nine Columbia professors have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining some of the world’s most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts in one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies.
“We honor these artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors for their accomplishments and for the curiosity, creativity, and courage required to reach new heights,” said David Oxtoby, president of the academy. “We invite these exceptional individuals to join in the academy’s work to address serious challenges and advance the common good.”
Daniel Alarcón is an associate professor of Journalism. Alarcón’s journalism has included deeply reported pieces focusing mainly on Peru, the country where he was born; in 2021, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Paul Beatty is an associate professor in the Writing Program at School of the Arts. His novel, The Sellout, won both the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
Mamadou Diouf is the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies. His research interests include urban, political, social, and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial Africa.
Fredrick Cornelius Harris is the Class of 1933 Professor of Political Science and former dean of faculty in the social sciences. He also serves as director of Columbia’s Center of African American Politics and Society.
Quarraisha Abdool Karim is professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is an infectious diseases epidemiologist, whose main research interests are in understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa; factors influencing acquisition of HIV infection in adolescent girls; and sustainable strategies to introduce antiretroviral therapy in resource-constrained settings.
Serena Ng is the Edwin W. Rickert Professor of Economics. Her fields of research and interest include macroeconomics, time series, econometrics, and big data.
Eric Talley is the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law. His areas of study are corporate, business, and transactional law, as well as intellectual property and technology.
Nim Tottenham is the chair of the Department of Psychology. Her research interests include developmental affective neuroscience, emotion, and development.
Gauri Viswanathan is the Class of 1933 Professor of English and Comparative Literature. She has published widely on education, religion, and culture; 19th-century British and colonial cultural studies; and the history of modern disciplines.
