Ray Kurzweil was among those inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 229th class of new members on Saturday, October 10.

The Academy program celebrates
“pioneering research and scholarship, artistic achievement, and exemplary service to society.”

The 212 new Fellows and 19 Foreign Honorary Members are leaders in research, scholarship, business, the arts, and public affairs, and include John Seely Brown (Founder and former Chief Scientist of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center), Douglas Hofstadter (Pulitzer Prize winning author), Thomas Pynchon (Writer), Dustin Hoffman (Actor), John Williams (Composer, conductor), Robert Gates (U.S. Secretary of Defense), Colin Powell (former U.S. Secretary of State), John Doerr (lead partner, Kleiner Perkins), Dana Mead (Chairman, MIT), and Paul D. Hewson aka Bono (Lead Singer of U2).

Founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and other prominent leaders of the American Revolution, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Current Academy research focuses on science and technology policy, global security, social policy, the humanities and culture, and education.

With headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Academy’s work is advanced by its 4,600 elected members, who are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business and public affairs from around the world. Its mission is to “cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”