Four Cornell University faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

They are:

• Robert A. Buhrman, the John Edson Sweet Professor of Engineering and director of Cornell's Center for Nanoscale Systems;
• Dominick C. LaCapra, the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies and director of Cornell's School of Criticism and Theory;
• William B. Provine, the Charles A. Alexander Professor of Biological Sciences and fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and
• Steven E. Stucky, the Given Foundation Professor of Composition and winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in music.

They join other newly named fellows, including former U.S. presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and Rockefeller University President Sir Paul Nurse; and movie director Martin Scorsese.

Buhrman, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1973, studies the electronic and structural properties of thin-film systems and nanostructures that can resolve current problems in basic and applied condensed-matter physics. He earned his B.E.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1967 and both his M.S. (1970) and his Ph.D. (1973) degrees from Cornell.

LaCapra began teaching in Cornell's Department of History in 1969. He served from 1993 to 2003 as director of the university's renowned Society for the Humanities, following two years as acting director. He received his B.A. from Cornell in 1961 and both his M.A. (1963) and his Ph.D. (1970) from Harvard University.

Provine is working on four research projects, including a history of the theories of neutral molecular evolution and a history of geneticists' attitudes toward race differences and race crossing. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1969 after earning his B.S. (1962), M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees, all from the University of Chicago.

Stucky won the Pulitzer for his Second Concerto for Orchestra and has written commissioned works for many major American orchestras and ensembles. A Cornell faculty member since 1980, he also has been associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for more than 15 years. Stucky earned his bachelor's degree in music from Baylor University in 1971 and both his MFA (1973) and his DMA (1978) from Cornell.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which has more than 4,000 fellows and over 600 foreign honorary members, was founded in 1780 by John Adams, George Washington and James Bowdoin and is based in Cambridge, Mass. The new fellows will be inducted into the academy in October.