The American Academy of Sciences & Letters has announced the 10 recipients of this year's Barry Prize, given to scholars at U.S. colleges and universities for distinguished intellectual achievements in the arts, sciences and learned professions.
An annual award, the Barry Prize "honors those whose work has made outstanding contributions to humanity's knowledge, appreciation, and cultivation of the good, the true, and the beautiful." Winners of the Barry Prize receive a cash award of $50,000 and also become members of the Academy.
The 2024 Barry Prizes were awarded to:
Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law to both undergraduates and law students. His award citation recognizes him "as one of the most-cited legal scholars of all time as well as a leading contributor to public understanding of constitutional law."
Gary A. Anderson, the Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought at the University of Notre Dame. Anderson focuses on the religion and literature of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, with special interest in the reception of the Bible in Judaism and Christianity.
Marianne Bertrand, the Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. An applied micro-economist, Bertrand conducts research in the fields of labor economics, corporate finance, political economy and development economics.
Nicholas A. Christakis, the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, with appointments in the Departments of Sociology; Statistics and Data Science; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Medicine; and the School of Management at Yale University. Christakis focuses on research in the fields of sociology, computer science, statistics, behavioral genetics, evolutionary biology, and epidemiology,
Brian Conrad, who is a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. His research focuses on the interface of number theory and algebraic geometry.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, author and cultural critic, Gates has made "distinguished contributions to humanity's growing capacity to recognize, and be uplifted by, diverse forms of literary excellence." according to AASL's citation.
Jeannie Suk Gersen, the John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard University, studies the difficulty of doing justice and protecting personal freedoms in areas like artistic expression, speech, cultural identity, pedagogy, psychological trauma, and intimate violence.
William Chester Jordan, who is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History Emeritus, and director of the Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton University. His research on medieval Europe has included analysis of the Great Famine, the Crusades, the treatment of Jewish populations, the contributions of women to premodern economies, and the legal systems of medieval monarchies.
Karin Öberg, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, who specializes in astrochemistry, studying how chemical processes affect planet formation.
Megan Sykes, the Michael J. Friedlander Professor of Medicine, professor of microbiology and immunology, professor of surgical sciences, and director of the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology at Columbia University. She was recognized for "elucidating basic immunology and carrying its discoveries to clinical application" in conditions ranging from blood cancers to Type I diabetes.
The Barry Prize recipients were honored at an investiture ceremony on October 23 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. AASL gave out its first Barry Prizes last year when the Academy was launched and its initial members inducted. In addition to its awards, AASL seeks to recognize the importance of excellent scholarship and champion "the intellectual rigor and diversity of American colleges, universities, and public intellectual discourse."