Congratulations to P&N Professor Michael Tomasello, who has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tomasello, the James F. Bonk Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, joined the P&N faculty in 2016. He is also the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
Tomasello, who did his undergraduate work at Duke, is a world-renowned scholar on social cognition, social learning, and communication/language in human children and great apes. His study on mind reading in great apes was chosen as one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2016 by Science Magazine. His most recent books include A Natural History of Human Morality (Harvard University Press, 2016) and A Natural History of Human Thinking (Harvard University Press, 2016).
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing—and opportunities available to—the nation and the world. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies in science, engineering, and technology policy; global security and international affairs; the humanities, arts, and education; and American institutions and the public good. Tomasello, along with other members of the society’s class of 2017 will be inducted at a ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 7th.
"I'm very honored to be included in such august company," Tomasello said. "This just came out of the blue."