The American Academy of Arts and Sciences purpose is "to cultivate every art
and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of
a free, independent, and virtuous people. We carry on that tradition through studies,
publications, and formal and informal meetings. Our studies have helped set the
direction of research and analysis in science and technology policy, global security,
social policy, and the humanities."

Dr. Engle joins a company of notable members "...from our founders John Adams, James Bowdoin, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maria Mitchell, and Alexander Graham Bell."

Other distinguished members include Margaret Mead, Jonas Salk, Barbara
McClintock, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Aaron Copland, Martha
Graham, John Updike, Georgia O' Keeffe, and John Hope Franklin. International
Members have included Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill,
Laurence Olivier, Mary Leakey, John Maynard Keynes, Akira Kurosawa, and Nelson
Mandela.