Professor Leif Andersson elected to the American Philosophical Society

Below you find the press release on the election from the American Philosophical Society.

American Philosophical Society
HELD AT PHILADELPHIA FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE
www.amphilsoc.org

On April 28, 2017, Leif Andersson was elected as one of thirty-three new members at the American Philosophical Society's Annual Spring Meeting in Philadelphia. Dr. Andersson is Professor in Functional Genomics in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University. He received his Ph.D. from the Agricultural University Uppsala in 1984.

Leif Andersson is the world's leading authority on the genomic study of the origin and selected traits of domestic animals, and for his pioneering work he received the prestigious international Wolf Prize in 2014. He has repeatedly discovered what happens genetically when animal breeders apply artificial selection to domestic animals and choose particular traits for enhancement. These traits include fat deposition in pigs, the color of wattles and skin in chickens, and coat coloration and gait locomotion in horses. Genetic understanding has aided further selection programs. This work is the best modern manifestation of Charles Darwin's pioneering study of Variation under Domestication. Truly Darwinian in outlook, Leif Andersson has expanded his genomic research program into problems of understanding evolution in nature, including the breeding of Baltic Sea herring, the size of rabbits, the peculiar mating system of a colorful shorebird, and size and shape of the beaks of Darwin's finches.

The American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of "promoting useful knowledge." The American Philosophical Society's current activities reflect the founder's spirit of inquiry, provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas, and convey the conviction of its members that intellectual inquiry and critical thought are inherently in the public interest. The Society sustains its mission in four principal ways. It honors and engages distinguished scientists, humanists, social scientists, and leaders in civic and cultural affairs through elected membership and opportunities for interdisciplinary, intellectual fellowship, particularly in the semi-annual Meetings in Philadelphia. It supports research and discovery through grants and fellowships, lectures, publications, prizes, exhibitions, and public education. It serves scholars through a research library of some 13 million manuscripts and other collections internationally recognized for their enduring scholarly value. It maintains a small museum for public displays relating to work and collections of the Society.

Early members included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Marshall. In the nineteenth century, John James Audubon, Robert Fulton, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, and Louis Pasteur were among those elected. Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, and George Marshall hint at the scientific, humanistic, and public accomplishments of twentieth-century members. The first woman was elected in 1789 - the Russian Princess Dashkova, president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg.

Today the Society has 1019 elected members, 853 resident members and 165 international members from more than two dozen foreign countries. Only 5,605 members have been elected since 1743. Since 1900, more than 240 members have received the Nobel Prize.

CONTACT:
Nora Monroe, Director of Membership & Prizes, nmonroe@amphilsoc.org, 215-440-3430