Kass, two alumni receive inaugural Bradley Prizes

Leon Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College, and two other alumni have received three of the four inaugural Bradley Prizes from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee.

Alumni receiving the $250,000 prizes are Mary Ann Glendon, A.B.,’59, J.D.,’61, and Thomas Sowell, Ph.D.,’68.

“These outstanding individuals are being recognized for achievements that are consistent with the mission statement of the foundation, including the promotion of liberal democracy, democratic capitalism and a vigorous defense of American institutions,” said Michael Grebe, president and chief executive officer of the Bradley Foundation.

Leon Kass

Kass, who is on leave, is chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics and the Hertog Fellow in Social Thought at the American Enterprise Institute.

His early research in molecular biology led him to contemplate the human consequences of science, an area of inquiry in which he has been engaged for more than 30 years, the foundation pointed out.

“In particular, Dr. Kass’ scholarship has focused on the broader moral and cultural questions raised by biomedical advances. His powerful books and essays on the prospects of, and problems with, biotechnology unguided by ethical and philosophic reflections have contributed significantly to the public debate,” the foundation noted.

From 1970 to 1972, Kass served as Executive Secretary of the Committee on the Life Sciences and Social Policy of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences.

Glendon is the Learned Hand professor of law at Harvard University. “A distinguished public intellectual, Professor Glendon is an influential teacher and an internationally respected expert on family law and human rights law,” read the foundation’s citation. She was appointed by Pope John II as an advisor to the Vatican and by President Bush to the President’s Council on Bioethics.

Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman senior fellow in public policy at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. An author and a syndicated columnist, Sowell was noted as“an ardent spokesman for personal responsibility, governmental restraint, the genius of the marketplace, and the essential goodness of America.”