TAU President Joseph Klafter Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Internationally renowned physical chemist recognized by one of America's most prestigious societies

Professor Joseph (Yossi) Klafter, President of Tel Aviv University, was elected an honorary member of the 2011 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced last week. Prof. Klafter joins a distinguished roster of new fellows, including Nobel science laureates El-Ichi Negish and H. David Politzer, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and former White House aide and CNN chairman Thomas Johnson.

"It is a privilege to honor these men and women for their extraordinary individual accomplishments," said Leslie Berlowitz, Academy President and William T. Golden Chair. "The knowledge and expertise of our members give the Academy a unique capacity — and responsibility — to provide practical policy solutions to the pressing challenges of the day. We look forward to engaging our new members in this work."

Since its founding in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the AAAS 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.

Dedicated to leadership in science and the academy

Prof. Klafter received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and has been a member of the TAU faculty since 1988. He chaired the Department of Physical Chemistry from 1990 to 1992 and 1998 to 2002, and concurrently served as head of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Institute of Chemical Physics. He currently holds the Heinemann Chair of Physical Chemistry and ascended to the presidency of Tel Aviv University in 2009.

Renowned in the field of physical chemistry, Prof. Klafter also served as chair of the Academic Board of the Israel Science Foundation, the main institution supporting scientific research in Israel, with an annual budget approaching $70 million.

He is a prolific researcher who has published nearly 400 scientific articles, edited 18 books, has been a member of the scientific committees of dozens of national and international conferences, and serves on the editorial boards of six scientific journals. Prof. Klafter is a Fellow of the American Physical Society among other organizations, and has been awarded many prestigious prizes in his field, including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Prize, the Weizmann Prize for Sciences, the Rothschild Prize in Chemistry, and the Israel Chemical Society Prize.

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