Two Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni, Jack Dangermond (MLA ’69) and Michael Maltzan (MArch ’88), will be formally inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences this weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Elected in April, they are among 252 new members recognized for excellence across academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research, and science.
Chartered in 1780, the Academy counts George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton among its earliest members. This year’s class, Academy President Laurie Patton noted, is “a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.”
Jack Dangermond is the founder and president of Esri, the company whose ArcGIS software made geographic information systems a working tool for planners, scientists, governments, and designers worldwide. Dangermond came to the GSD in 1967 and was quickly hired by Howard Fisher at the school’s Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, an early incubator of computer mapping. In 1969 he and his wife, Laura, returned to their hometown of Redlands, California, to found Esri, which remains privately held and under his leadership. The Dangermonds are also prominent conservation philanthropists; their 2017 gift of $165 million to The Nature Conservancy established the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve on California’s coast. The Academy recognizes him as an environmental scientist and GIS technologist.
Michael Maltzan founded Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles in 1995. His practice spans cultural institutions, civic infrastructure, housing, and education, and treats architecture as an instrument of social change in complex urban settings. Notable projects include the Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles, Star Apartments, MoMA QNS, the UCLA Hammer Museum expansion, the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Qaumajuq Inuit Art Centre, and the RIT Performing Arts Center. His honors include the 2025 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Maltzan serves on the GSD’s Dean’s Council and the Visiting Committee to the GSD. He was elected to the Academy in the Humanities and Arts, Visual Arts.
The Academy’s induction weekend runs October 9–11, with the Induction Ceremony on Saturday, October 10, where new members sign the Book of Members, a tradition dating to the institution’s founding.
