The Harvard Society of Fellows appointed Noam Chomsky in 1951.
Harvard Society of Fellows . Among its best-known members have been philosopher W. V. Quine , Jf ' 36 ; behaviorist B. F. Skinner , Jf ' 36 ; double Nobel laureate John Bardeen , Jf ' 38 ; economist Paul Samuelson , Jf ' 40 ; historian Arthur M. Schlesinger , Jr. , Jf ' 43 ; presidential advisor McGeorge Bundy , Jf ' 48 ; historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn , Jf ' 51 ; linguist Noam Chomsky , Jf ' 55 ; biologist E. O. Wilson , Jf ' 56 ; cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky , Jf ' 57 ; former dean of the Harvard faculty , economist Henry Rosovsky , Jf ' 57 ; philosopher Saul Kripke , Jf ' 66 ; Fields Medal-winning theoretical physicist Ed Witten , Jf ' 81 ; and writer , critic , and editor Leon Wieseltier , Jf ' 82 . Noam Chomsky . From 1951 to 1955 he was appointed to Harvard University 's Society of Fellows , where he developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he was awarded his doctorate in 1955 .