Vanderbilt anthropologist Tom D. Dillehay has been named to a distinguished class of scientists, politicians, authors, artists and others, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) announced April 30.
The academy named 203 new fellows for 2007. In addition to Dillehay, the list includes former Vice President Albert Gore; former Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; New York Mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg; Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt; New York Times investigative correspondent James Risen; filmmaker Spike Lee; Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter; pianist Emanuel Ax; historian Nell Painter; and former White House official and Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley.
“This is an extraordinary honor for Tom and wonderful recognition for Vanderbilt,” Nicholas Zeppos, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said. “Tom’s work is fundamental and path-breaking and defines his field. We are fortunate that he is a member of our academic community.”
Dillehay is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt and Professor Extraordinaire at the Universidad Austral de Chile. He is internationally recognized for his work in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology and Latin American studies. He has carried out numerous archeological and anthropological projects in Peru, Chile, Argentina and other South American countries and in the United States. His main interests are migration, the long-term transformative processes leading to political and economic change, and the interdisciplinary and historical methodologies designed to study those processes.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Dillehay directed excavations in Monte Verde, Chile, which included human artifacts dated at more than 12,500 years old. The discovery was controversial at first because it suggested that humans had colonized the New World significantly earlier than believed. Since then the notion has gained broad acceptance. Dillehay’s ethnographic studies of the indigenous Araucanian people of Chile have been described as a “tour de force” and he has actively supported the interests of the Araucanians’ descendants, the Mapuche, when they have been threatened by political changes. He currently co-directs with the University of Chicago an interdisciplinary project focused on the long-term effects that the El Niño cycle has had on the people and environment of the north coast of Peru.
The anthropologist has published 15 books and more than 200 refereed journal articles. He has received numerous international and national awards for his research, books and teaching. In addition, he has served on two United Nations commissions and acted as a consultant to governments and academic institutions in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico.
Vanderbilt AAAS fellows named in past years include Centennial Professor of Psychology Randolph Blake, Chancellor Emeritus Alexander Heard, former Hortense B. Ingram Chair of Molecular Oncology Brigid Hogan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology Jon Kaas and Thomas F. Frist Professor of Medicine John Oates. The new fellows will be formally inducted on Oct. 6 in a ceremony at the society’s Cambridge, Mass., headquarters.
Fellows and foreign honorary members are nominated and elected to the academy by current members. Members include scholars and practitioners from mathematics, physics, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, public affairs and business.
The academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock. Fellows have included 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 170 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. The academy is an independent policy research center whose current research focuses on science and global security, social policy, the humanities and culture, and education.
For a full list of 2006 fellows, visit http://www.amacad.org/.
Media Contact: David F. Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu