David R. Walt Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. –David R. Walt, Ph. D., Robinson Professor of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, was among the scholars, scientists, writers, artists and civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, and the humanities, arts, and education.

According to the Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz, "election to the Academy honors individual accomplishment and calls upon members to serve the public good."

Walt, who is also an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering, was recognized by the academy for his pioneering work in fiber-optic microarray technology. This technology is used in solving urgent biological problems such as the detection of infectious diseases, diagnostics for cancer biomarkers and in answering fundamental questions on basic biological processes such as enzymology and protein folding.

Members of the 2013 class include winners of the Nobel Prize; National Medal of Science; the Lasker Award; the Pulitzer and the Shaw prizes; the Fields Medal; MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships; the Kennedy Center Honors; and Grammy, Emmy, Academy and Tony awards.  A complete list of new members is located at https://www.amacad.org/members.aspx. 

The 2013 class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 12, 2013, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Tufts University, located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university is widely encouraged.

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