Post date: July 14, 2003
Professor Louis Kaplow has recently been named a new fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, an interdisciplinary society of scholars based in Cambridge, Mass. A law and economics scholar, Kaplow joins 18 other current HLS professors who have been selected to become academy fellows in previous years.
“It is certainly an honor to be chosen to join the Academy of Arts & Sciences,” said Kaplow, a 1981 graduate of the law school. “I appreciate the value of a place committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge across many different disciplines, and look forward to meeting the other fellows and learning more about the academy’s work.”
Each year, the academy chooses scholars and practitioners in five overall fields: 1) mathematics and physics; 2) biological sciences; 3) social sciences; 4) humanities and arts; and 5) public affairs and business. Along with Kaplow, this year’s new group of fellows and foreign honorary members includes four college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners and four Pulitzer Prize winners. Some of the more well known inductees this year are United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, former journalist Walter Cronkite and philanthropist William Gates Sr.
“Election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is an honor that acknowledges the best of all scholarly fields and professions,” said Patricia Meyer Spacks, president of the academy. “Newly elected fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes those who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines.”
Under the direction of a Committee on Studies, members of the academy contribute to studies that objectively analyze complex social, political and intellectual topics. Results of studies are frequently published in DÆDALUS, the academy’s principal publication.
Kaplow is recognized as one of the foremost scholars in many fields: antitrust, tax policy, law and economics, and most recently the intersection of law, economics, and moral philosophy. Kaplow has been a professor at HLS since 1982. In addition to his J.D., he holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Northwestern University.
The academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and others “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.”