Academician

Not to be confused withAcademics.

Anacademicianis a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is anhonorifictitle used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life.

Accordingly, within systems such as theAcademy of Sciences of the USSR,the title grants privileges and administrative responsibilities for funding allocation and research priorities.

History

Historically, the meaning for the title ofAcademicianfollows the traditions of the two most successful early scientific societies: either theRoyal Society,where it was an honorary recognition by an independent body of peer reviewers and was meant to distinguish a person, while giving relatively little formal power, or the model of theFrench Academy of Sciences,which was much closer integrated with the government, provided with more state funding as an organization, and where the title ofAcademicianimplied in a lot more rights when it came to decision making.

China

Being an academician in China is a top honor and title granted only to the nation's top scientists and engineers. Academicians are elected through either theChinese Academy of SciencesandChinese Academy of Engineering.

United Kingdom

The British honours "Fellow of the Royal Society"(FRS) or Fellow of theAcademy of Social Sciencescan be considered rough equivalents. Fellowship of theAcademy of Social Scienceswas known as the Award of Academician until July 2014.Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK are recognized as academicians and members include Nobel Prize winners and the nation's top engineers and scientists. Recently, Nobel Prize winnerFrances Arnoldwas elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering.

United States

In the United States, academicians are elected members of theNational Academy of SciencesandNational Academy of Engineering.Members include many Nobel Prize, Turing Awards, and Fields Medalists.

Sweden

Sweden does not use the Academician concept, but membership in learned societies are noted in the Swedish State Calendar. TheSwedish Royal Academiesare independent organizations, founded onRoyalcommand, that act to promote the arts, culture, and science inSweden.TheSwedish AcademyandAcademy of Scienceswho are responsible for the selection ofNobel Prizelaureates inLiterature,Physics,Chemistry,and thePrize in Economic Sciences.Also included in the Royal Academies are scientific societies that were granted Royal Charters.There are a few esteemed Swedish learned societies that has not sought Royal command, including theSociety of Sciences in Lund.

Eastern Europe

"Academician" may also be a functional title and denote a full member of theNational Academyof Sciences in those countries where the academy has a strong influence on national scientific life, particularly countries that were part of, or influenced by, theSoviet Union.In such countries, "academician" is used as anhonorifictitle (like "Doctor", "Professor", etc.) when addressing or speaking about someone. Countries where the termacademicianis used in this way include theRussian Federation,China,Armenia,Azerbaijan,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Croatia,Estonia,Georgia,Hungary,Latvia,Lithuania,Moldova,Mongolia,North Macedonia,Romania,Turkey,Serbia,Slovenia,Tajikistan,Ukraine,Belorussia,Uzbekistan,andEstonia.

However, since the reforms of late USSR dismantled the de facto monopoly of the state on forming academies, the creation of voluntary academies has been allowed. While some of the newly created academies did improve the relatively rigid structure, the prestige and meaning of the title has been substantially undermined; as the title of "academician" could be awarded by associations ofpseudoscientistsor organizations that use the title for the sole purpose of gaining money. Therefore, it became customary and almost compulsory to list which academy gave the title to assert its meaningfulness.

Canada

In Canada, fellowship of theRoyal Society of Canadais a comparable honour.

Finland

InFinland,"Academician" (Finnish:akateemikko,Swedish:akademiker) is an honorary title and thePresident of the Republicnominates the Academicians. There can be 12 Finnish Academicians representing science and scholarly pursuits and eight Academicians representing fine arts and literature at the same time. TheAcademy of Finlandis the state funding agency of Finnish science and letters, but it has no organizational connection to Finnish Academicians. The scientists and scholars funded by the Academy of Finland are called Academy Professors (Finnish:akatemiaprofessori,Swedish:akademiprofessor) and Academy Research Fellows (Finnish:akatemiatutkija,Swedish:akademiforskare). In addition to Academy of Finland, Finland has four independent national academies. Finnish academies are less recognized globally due to its lack of international exposure and use of English language.

Taiwan

In Taiwan, elected members ofAcademia Sinicaare considered academicians.

Corresponding member

Main article:Corresponding member

A related option of membership also exists in some countries — aCorresponding Memberis a person who is eminent in respect of scientific results but cannot or does not wish to become a full academy member.

One of the reasons for this may be that he/she is living far from the academy and it is inconvenient to often travel to its headquarters. It is, for example, the case when the person is not a resident in the country which the academy belongs to.For communication, such a scientist uses "correspondence".

Another possible reason is that the charter or traditions of the academy do not admit election of a person to a full membership, unless he/she had been a corresponding member for a certain period and has demonstrated additional achievements within this period. Because of this, in theRussian Academy of Sciencesa corresponding membership is a seen as a lower level of membership as compared to the academicians.

See also

• Académie française
• Academy
• Academy of sciences(a list of national academies of sciences)