Elke Weber, Geoffrey Heal Appointed to National Academies

Geoffrey Heal, left, and Elke Weber Columbia Business School Professors Elke Weber and Geoffrey Heal have been recognized for their pioneering research on climate change with appointments to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, respectively. Weber, the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business, co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences, and director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, is an expert in behavioral economics and one of the foremost scholars on decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty. Weber’s research examines the ways individuals think and make decisions about the environment and climate change. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded during the Revolutionary War, is one of the oldest and most prestigious honor societies in the United States. It aims to address critical challenges facing our global society through independent research and study. Geoffrey Heal, the Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise and Bernstein Faculty Leader at the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics, is one of the founders of the field of environmental economics. Heal has contributed significantly to our understanding of the economic value of ecosystems and the complex, uncertain risks posed by the changing climate. The National Academy of Sciences, a member of the larger National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, was founded as part of an act of Congress in 1863 to advise the nation on matters of science and technology. As with the American Academy, an appointment to the NAS is one of the country’s highest academic honors.