Shmuel N. Eisenstadt

Eisenstadt was born in Warsaw, Poland, on September 10, 1923. He was a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for half a century and chaired its Department of Sociology from 1951 to 1969. His research has concentrated on the study of historical sociology and the comparative study of civilizations.

His landmark 1963 work, The Political System of Empires, is an exploration of the progress and decline of 27 different empires. He has written numerous other books and essays including some in Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

"I try to understand what was the historical experience of the great civilizations...to try to understand the major dynamics of these civilizations and how they became modern societies, how they modernize and how they develop different cultural programs of modernity," Eisenstadt said last night.

Albert Eschenmoser

An organic chemist educated in Switzerland, Eschenmoser has conducted research there for almost 40 years. He was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1965, and elected to the Foreign Association of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., in 1973.

Eschenmoser has been honored by his receipt of over 13 awards from both Swiss and American institutions.

Eschenmoser is noted for his scientific creativity and his dedication to the field. Outstanding among his topics of research is the chemistry of molecules involved in the first stages of life on earth.

Oscar Handlin

Handlin was Harvard's Carl H. Pforzheimer University professor of history, specializing in American history and immigration.

"[Handlin] is one of the preeminent figures in the American historical profession," said Donald H. Fleming, Trumbull professor of American history.

Handlin won a 1952 Pulitzer Prize for history with Uprooted, one of 31 books he wrote or edited. "[H]e has charged his pages with poetry and feeling," said a New York Times book review.

While at Harvard, Handlin also served as director of the Harvard University Library and the Charles Warren Center for studies in American history. He is now Carl M. Loeb University professor emeritus.

Deborah W. Meier

Meier serves as principal of Central Park East Secondary School, a public high school in New York City. She is famous for founding a group of public alternative elementary schools in East Harlem, New York.