Awards, Research, People

Six faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

By Yasmin Anwar

Rucker Johnson, Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, Stefano DellaVigna, Stephen Hinshaw, Tyrone Hayes and R. Jay Wallace have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
UC Berkeley’s newest electees to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, top row, left to right, Rucker Johnson, Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, Stefano DellaVigna. Bottom row, left to right, Stephen Hinshaw, Tyrone Hayes and R. Jay Wallace.
Rucker Johnson, Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, Stefano DellaVigna, Stephen Hinshaw, Tyrone Hayes and R. Jay Wallace have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

UC Berkeley’s newest electees to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, top row, left to right, Rucker Johnson, Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, Stefano DellaVigna. Bottom row, left to right, Stephen Hinshaw, Tyrone Hayes and R. Jay Wallace.

Six UC Berkeley faculty members and top scholars have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 241-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges.

“We are honoring the excellence of these individuals, celebrating what they have achieved so far, and imagining what they will continue to accomplish,” said AAAS President David Oxtoby. “The past year has been replete with evidence of how things can get worse; this is an opportunity to illuminate the importance of art, ideas, knowledge, and leadership that can make a better world.”

The six are among 252 new AAAS members from around the nation. Their election boosts the number of living Berkeley AAAS members to about 266.

Here are the 2021 UC Berkeley honorees:

Stefano DellaVigna is the Daniel Koshland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics and a professor of business administration in the Haas School of Business. He specializes in behavioral economics and is a co-director of the Berkeley Initiative for Behavioral Economics and Finance.

Tyrone Hayes is a professor of integrative biology who studies the effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals on amphibians. He is best known for his research concluding that the herbicide atrazine, commonly used in corn fields, is an endocrine disruptor that demasculinizes and feminizes male frogs.

Stephen Hinshaw is a professor of psychology who studies mental health in children and adolescents, and the stigma of mental health. He has conducted longitudinal studies on children and young adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Rucker Johnson is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy and a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. As a labor economist who specializes in the economics of education, Johnson’s work considers the role of poverty and inequality in affecting life chances.

Annette Vissing-Jørgensen holds the Arno A. Rayner Chair in Finance and Management and serves as chair of the finance program at Berkeley Haas. Her research focuses on empirical asset pricing, monetary policy, household finance and entrepreneurship, and it spans both asset pricing and corporate finance.

R. Jay Wallace is the Judy Chandler Webb Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research. As a philosopher, his research explores questions about responsibility, moral psychology, normative ethics and the theory of practical reason.