April 23, 2014
Academy of arts and sciences inducting Franklin, Fine
University of Washington faculty members Jerry Franklin and Arthur Fine have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The roughly 4,000 fellows and 600 foreign honorary members of the academy include more than 250 Nobel Prize laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. The induction ceremony will be Oct. 11 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.
Jerry Franklin
After conducting groundbreaking research on how the landscape revived after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, Franklin and his collaborators developed the concept of “biological legacies of natural disturbances.” Based on this concept Franklin has advocated leaving legacies of some large live trees and coarse woody debris – such as downed logs and standing dead trees or snags – during timber harvesting to more closely mimic natural disturbances. Originally greeted with skepticism, the approach is now accepted by many environmentalists and timber companies as part of what Franklin calls “ecological forestry.” Franklin, who joined the UW in 1986, is director of the Wind River Ecosystem Research Center and has helped developed the National Ecological Observatory Network or NEON. . Prior to coming to UW Franklin was chief plant ecologist with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and a faculty member at Oregon State University. His degrees are from Oregon State University and Washington State University.
Arthur Fine
Fine is an emeritus professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of physics and history. His research concentrates on the philosophy of science, especially physics, and on general philosophical questions arising in the natural and social sciences. He also is co-author of a new book on Albert Einstein with Thomas Ryckman, a Stanford philosophy professor. Initially uncertain about whether to study mathematics or philosophy, he did both. Fine earned a Master’s degree in mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology, then a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1963. He has served as president of the Philosophy Science Association and the American Philosophical Association, Central Division. He came to the UW in 2001.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Philosophy • School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
