University Times

Nicholas Rescher, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, is among 212 new fellows elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. AAAS, which publishes the journal Science, is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering and innovation around the world.

Rescher, who came to the University in 1961, is a former chair of Pitt’s philosophy department and currently co-chairs the Center for Philosophy of Science.

His election marks the fourth consecutive year a Pitt philosophy department faculty member has received the honor. Nuel D. Belnap Jr. was elected in 2008, Mark L. Wilson in 2007 and Anil Gupta in 2006.

Pitt’s other AAAS fellows are: transplant pioneer Thomas B. Starzl of surgery, elected in 1971; Adolf Grünbaum of philosophy, elected in 1976; John Henry McDowell of philosophy, in 1992; John S. Earman of history and philosophy of science, in 1993; Robert Brandom of philosophy, in 2000, and Peter L. Strick of neurobiology and psychiatry, in 2004.

The 2009 class of fellows will be inducted Oct. 10 at the AAAS headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Among this year’s other inductees is Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English writing at Pitt.