sentences:  As a member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, he served as a liaison to the Pacific Science Association.Through his work, he has come to the belief that practitioners of archaeology, historical linguistics, human genetic studies, ethnology, and archival historical research can work together to give a fuller picture of the past than any discipline alone could do.In 1997 Kirch was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences and in 2011 became recipient of the Herbert E. Gregory Medal for Distinguished Service to Pacific Science from the Pacific Science Association.