Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”
Charles Kane, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Physics in the School of Arts & Sciences, is a theoretical physicist whose groundbreaking work on topological insulators—materials with a special kind of electrical conduction on their surface—has initiated a new field in condensed matter physics and garnered external recognition at the highest levels. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and he has received numerous awards, including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute, Dirac Prize of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Oliver Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society, and Physics Frontiers Prize of the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation. In addition to his research, Kane has taught physics courses at all levels, ranging from topics in quantum condensed matter for advanced graduate students to introductory honors electromagnetism for freshmen, for which he received Penn’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
View this year's new members: 2024 New Member List | American Academy of Arts and Sciences