Talk:Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Resignation and Non-acceptance of election
Richard Feynman is mentioned as the first person who resigned from the Academy. He was elected in 1954 and resigned in in 1959 (according to his book) or 1969 (according to the Academy's online database). His explanations of why included excessive elitism, but varied over time. Subsequently Richard Lewontin was elected in 1968 and resigned in 1972, giving a detailed account of his principled reasons for doing so, though he is not mentioned as a resigned member in the NAS database. Does anyone know if any elected member declined election by not attending the induction ceremony or signing the book? CharlesHBennett (talk) 19:50, 28 January 2023 (UTC)


 * The Member Directory may have been in flux when I last looked but it now lists 16 resigned members, beginning with Josiah Whitney in 1874, and including both Feynman and Lewontin and one living member. I have corrected the article accordingly. CharlesHBennett (talk) 02:39, 29 January 2023 (UTC)