Biologist named fellow to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

University of Colorado at Boulder molecular biologist Thomas Blumenthal has joined a group of luminaries elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2010 Class of Fellows.

Blumenthal, professor and chairman of CU's department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, is among 229 leaders in the fields of sciences, social sciences, the humanities, the arts, business and public affairs named as fellows this year.

Others elected include astrophysicist Geoffrey Marcy, geneticist Timothy Ley, Pulitzer-winning historian Daniel Howe and Oscar-winning film director Francis Ford Coppola.

Blumenthal is the 21st faculty member to be elected a fellow of the academy while at CU. Three others, including Norman Pace, distinguished professor of MCDB, were elected at other institutions prior to joining the CU faculty.

The 230-year-old academy is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

CU faculty members previously elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences include three of four of CU's Nobel laureates, three of four of CU's National Medal of Science winners and several of its Guggenheim and MacArthur fellows.

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on Oct. 9 at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.

Since its founding by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other "scholar-patriots," the academy has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.