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American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Coordinates:42°22′51″N71°06′37″W/ 42.380755°N 71.110256°W/42.380755; -71.110256
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Not to be confused withAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
AbbreviationThe American Academy; The Academy
FormationMay 4, 1780;244 years ago(1780-05-04)
TypeHonorary society and independent research center
HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts,U.S.
Membership
5,700+ active members
SubsidiariesDaedalus
Websitewww.amacad.orgEdit this at Wikidata
The House of the Academy,Cambridge, Massachusetts.

TheAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences(The Academy) is one of the oldestlearned societiesin theUnited States.It was founded in 1780 during theAmerican RevolutionbyJohn Adams,John Hancock,James Bowdoin,[1]Andrew Oliver,and otherFounding Fathers of the United States.[2]It is headquartered inCambridge, Massachusetts.

Membership in the academy is achieved through a thorough petition, review, and election process.[3]The academy's quarterly journal,Dædalus,is published by theMIT Presson behalf of the academy,[4]and has been open-access since January 2021. The academy also conducts multidisciplinary public policy research.[5]

Laurie L. Pattonwill become President of the Academy in January 2025.[6]

History

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The Academy was established by theMassachusettslegislature on May 4, 1780, charted in order "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."[7]The sixty-two incorporating fellows represented varying interests and high standing in the political, professional, and commercial sectors of the state. The first class of new members, chosen by the Academy in 1781, includedBenjamin FranklinandGeorge Washingtonas well as several international honorary members. The initial volume of AcademyMemoirsappeared in 1785, and theProceedingsfollowed in 1846. In the 1950s, the Academy launched its journalDaedalus,reflecting its commitment to a broader intellectual and socially-oriented program.[8]

Since the second half of the twentieth century, independent research has become a central focus of the Academy. In the late 1950s,arms controlemerged as one of its signature concerns. The Academy also served as the catalyst in establishing theNational Humanities CenterinNorth Carolina.In the late 1990s, the Academy developed a new strategic plan, focusing on four major areas: science, technology, and global security; social policy and education; humanities and culture; and education. In 2002, the Academy established a visiting scholars program in association withHarvard University.More than 75 academic institutions from across the country have become Affiliates of the Academy to support this program and other Academy initiatives.[9]

The Academy has sponsored a number of awards and prizes,[10]throughout its history and has offered opportunities for fellowships and visiting scholars at the Academy.[11]

In July 2013, theBoston Globeexposed then presidentLeslie Berlowitzfor falsifying her credentials, faking a doctorate, and consistently mistreating her staff.[12]Berlowitz subsequently resigned.[13][14]

Projects

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The Humanities Indicators

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Main article:Humanities Indicators

A project of the Academy that equips researchers, policymakers, universities, foundations, museums, libraries, humanities councils, and other public institutions withstatisticaltools for answering basic questions about primary and secondary humanities education, undergraduate and graduate education in thehumanities,the humanities workforce, levels and sources of program funding, public understanding and impact of the humanities, and other areas of concern in the humanities community.[15][16][17][18]It is modeled on the Science and Engineering Indicators, published biennially by theNational Science Boardas required byCongress.

Membership

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Founding members

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Charter members of the Academy wereJohn Adams,Samuel Adams,John Bacon,James Bowdoin,Charles Chauncy,John Clarke,David Cobb,Samuel Cooper,Nathan Cushing,Thomas Cushing,William Cushing,Tristram Dalton,Francis Dana,Samuel Deane,Perez Fobes, Caleb Gannett, Henry Gardner,Benjamin Guild,John Hancock,Joseph Hawley,Edward Augustus Holyoke,Ebenezer Hunt,Jonathan Jackson,Charles Jarvis,Samuel Langdon,Levi Lincoln,Daniel Little, Elijah Lothrup,John Lowell,Samuel Mather, Samuel Moody,Andrew Oliver,Joseph Orne, Theodore Parsons,George Partridge,Robert Treat Paine,Phillips Payson,Samuel Phillips,John Pickering,Oliver Prescott,Zedekiah Sanger,Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant,Micajah Sawyer,Theodore Sedgwick,William Sever,David Sewall,Stephen Sewall,John Sprague, Ebenezer Storer,Caleb Strong,James Sullivan,John Bernard Sweat, Nathaniel Tracy,Cotton Tufts,James Warren,Samuel West,Edward Wigglesworth,Joseph Willard,Abraham Williams, Nehemiah Williams, Samuel Williams, andJames Winthrop.

Members

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From the beginning, the membership, nominated and elected by peers, has included not only scientists and scholars, but also writers and artists as well as representatives from the full range of professions and public life. Throughout the Academy's history, 10,000 fellows have been elected, including such notables asJohn Adams,John James Audubon,Sissela Bok,Willa Cather,T. S. Eliot,Duke Ellington,Josiah Willard Gibbs,Joseph Henry,Washington Irving,Thomas Jefferson,Edward R. Murrow,Martha Nussbaum,J. Robert Oppenheimer,Augustus Saint-Gaudens,Jonas SalkandEudora Welty.

International honorary members have included Jose Antonio Pantoja Hernandez,Albert Einstein,[19]Leonhard Euler,Marquis de Lafayette,Alexander von Humboldt,Leopold von Ranke,Charles Darwin,Carl Friedrich Gauss,Otto Hahn,Jawaharlal Nehru,Pablo Picasso,Liu Guosong,Lucian Michael Freud,Luis Buñuel,Galina Ulanova,Werner Heisenberg,Alec Guinness,Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,Menahem Yaari,Yitzhak Apeloig,Zvi Galil,Haim Harari,andSebastião Salgado.[20]

AstronomerMaria Mitchellwas the first woman elected to the Academy, in 1848.[21]

The current membership encompasses over 5,700 members based across the United States and around the world. Academy members include more than 250Nobellaureates and more than 60Pulitzer Prizewinners.[22]

Of the Academy's 14,343 members since 1780, 1,406 are or have been affiliated with Harvard University, 611 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 433 with Yale University, 425 with the University of California, Berkeley, and 404 with Stanford University. The following table includes those institutions affiliated with 300 or more members.[23]

Institution Members (1780–2021)
Harvard 1,406
MIT 611
Yale 433
Berkeley 425
Stanford 404
Chicago 367
Columbia 344
Princeton 322

† Excludes members affiliated exclusively with associated national laboratories.

Classes and specialties

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As of 2023, membership is divided into five classes and thirty specialties.[24]

Class I – Mathematical and physical sciences

Class II – Biological sciences

Class III – Social and behavioral sciences

Class IV – Arts and humanities

Class V – Public affairs, business, and administration

  • Section 1.Journalism,media,and communications
  • Section 2. Business, corporate, andphilanthropicleadership
  • Section 3. Educational and academic leadership
  • Section 4. Public affairs andpublic policy
  • Section 5. Scientific, cultural, and nonprofit leadership

Presidents, 1780–present

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Kershaw, G. E. (2014). American Academy of arts and sciences. In M. Spencer (Ed.),The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment.London, UK: Bloomsbury.
  2. ^"Yale Faculty Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences".Yale University. May 4, 2004. Archived fromthe originalon September 18, 2016.RetrievedApril 21,2012.
  3. ^"Academy Bylaws – American Academy of Arts & Sciences".Archived fromthe originalon June 2, 2017.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  4. ^"About the Academy".American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived fromthe originalon September 2, 2012.RetrievedSeptember 11,2012.
  5. ^"Our Work".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  6. ^"Announcing Laurie L. Patton as the Next President of the Academy | American Academy of Arts and Sciences".amacad.org.May 2, 2024.RetrievedJune 26,2024.
  7. ^"Charter of Incorporation".American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived fromthe originalon January 3, 2011.RetrievedApril 21,2012.
  8. ^"Gale Encyclopedia of US History: American Academy of Arts and Sciences".Answers.
  9. ^"Visiting Scholars Program".American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived fromthe originalon August 30, 2014.RetrievedAugust 22,2014.
  10. ^"Prizes".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  11. ^"Fellowships".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  12. ^"Leader of Cambridge's prestigious Academy of Arts and Sciences inflated resume, falsely claiming doctorate – The Boston Globe".BostonGlobe.
  13. ^Embattled head of American Academy of Arts and Sciences resigns after questions about resume – Metro.The Boston Globe(July 26, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
  14. ^Academy loses a tireless advocate of arts, sciences – Letters.The Boston Globe(July 30, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
  15. ^Humanities Indicators.
  16. ^Howard, Jennifer (January 7, 2009)."First National Picture of Trends in the Humanities Is Unveiled".Chronicle of Higher Education.
  17. ^Flaherty, Colleen (September 3, 2013)."A New Humanities Report Card".Inside Higher Ed.
  18. ^"The State of the Humanities: Funding 2014"(PDF).Humanities Indicators. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 25, 2019.
  19. ^"Albert Einstein".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.February 2023.
  20. ^"Mr. Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado".American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived fromthe originalon August 13, 2014.RetrievedAugust 13,2014.
  21. ^She is an Astronomer, "Maria Mitchell".
  22. ^"Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tyler Jacks, Andre Previn, and Melinda F. Gates Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences".American Academy of Arts and Sciences. April 17, 2012. Archived fromthe originalon April 22, 2012.
  23. ^"Member Directory".amacad.org.RetrievedDecember 14,2021.
  24. ^"New Members Elected in 2023".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.RetrievedApril 24,2023.
  25. ^Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll,Memoir of Nathaniel Bowditch,Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1840. Cf.p.138
  26. ^White, Daniel Appleton,"Eulogy on John Pickering, LL. D., President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences",eulogy delivered to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, October 28, 1846; published inMemoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,v.3
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