Back in May this year, WAN’s Director Chizuko UENO received an invitation to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The following is the invitation letter.

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Dear Professor Ueno:

On behalf of the Officers and members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, we are pleased to announce your election to the Academy and warmly welcome you as a new member.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together, as expressed in our charter, "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people." Our studies have helped set the direction Mitchell, and Alexander Graham Bell. Other distinguished members include Margaret Mead, Jonas Salk, Barbara McClintock, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Aaron Copland, Martha Graham, John Hope Franklin, Georgia Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, Mary Leakey, John Maynard Keynes, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson Mandela. Our current members represent today's innovative thinkers in every field and profession, including more than two hundred and fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. A list of current Academy members in your field is available here (Sociology, Demography and Geography), and a complete list of the newly elected members will be available on the Academy's website (www.amacad.org)today at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Soon you will receive materials from our Secretary, Geraldine Richmond, providing further details about the Academy's work and the annual Induction weekend, currently scheduled for October 9-11, 2020. Of course, this year's Induction plans will be in line with guidance from public health officials. We invite you to follow a long-standing Academy tradition, begun by our earliest members, and respond with a written letter of acceptance. Copies of some of these wonderful letters from 1780 to the present are on exhibit at the Academy, several of which can be found here. We remember how pleased and excited we were upon receiving the notice of our election to the Academy. This honor signifies the high regard in which you are held by leaders in your field and members throughout the nation.

Our warmest congratulations on your election.

Yours sincerely,

Nancy C. Andrews
Chair of the Board
[Signature on the original letter]


David W. Oxtoby
President
[Signature on the original letter]