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Information about National Academy Of Sciences

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President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."

Overview

Origin

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National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.
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The National Academies' Beckman Conference Center, Irvine, California
The Civil War caused a need for a national academy. The Act of Incorporation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, created the National Academy of Sciences and named 50 charter members. Many of these men were the former American Scientific Lazzaroni or just "Lazzaroni" as they called themselves.

In 1863 enlisting the support of Alexander Dallas Bache and Charles Henry Davis, a professional astronomer recently recalled from the Navy to Washington to head the Bureau of Navigation, Louis Agassiz and Benjamin Peirce planned the steps whereby the National Academy of Sciences was to be established. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts was to name Agassiz to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian.

On the pretext of desiring to discuss his new duties, Agassiz was to come to Washington at government expense to plan the organization with the others. So it was done, bypassing Joseph Henry, who had already made known his reluctance to have a bill for such an academy presented to Congress in the belief that such a resolution would be “opposed as something at variance with our democratic institutions.” Agassiz, Davis, Peirce, Benjamin Gould, and Senator Wilson met at Bache's house and hurriedly wrote the bill incorporating the Academy, including in it the name of fifty incorporators.

During the last hours of the session, when the Senate was immersed in the rush of last minute business before its adjournment, Senator Wilson introduced the bill. Without examining it or debating its provisions, both the Senate and House approved it, and President Lincoln signed it.[1]

Although hailed as a great step forward in government recognition of the role of science in American civilization, the National Academy of Sciences at the time created enormous ill-feelings among scientists, whether or not they were named as incorporators. Later, Agassiz admitted that they had “started on the wrong track.”

*[1] The Lazzaroni: science and scientists in midnineteenth-century America. Miller, Lillian B. Q149.U5M55 509′.2′2 [B] 72-10737

The Act states

The National Academy did not solve the problems facing a nation in Civil War as the Lazzaroni had hoped, nor did it centralize American scientific efforts.

Many of the original NAS came from the so-called American Scientific Lazzaroni, an informal network of mostly physical scientists working in the vicinity of Cambridge, Massachusetts (circa 1850s)[1].

Recent history

The National Academy of Sciences as of spring 2003 included about 1,922 members, 93 members emeritus, 341 foreign associates, and employed about 1,100 staff. The current members annually elect new members for life. Election to membership is one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a scientist and recognizes scientists who have made distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. There are more than 170 members who have won a Nobel Prize. The National Academy of Sciences is an institutional member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The ICSU Advisory Committee, which is in the Research Council's Office of International Affairs, facilitates participation of members in international scientific unions and is a liaison for U.S. national committees for the individual scientific unions. Although there is no formal relationship with state and local academies of science, there often is informal dialogue.

The National Academy of Sciences has an annual meeting in Washington, D.C.. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the scholarly journal of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academies Press is the publisher for the National Academies, and makes 3600+ publications available for free reading on its website.

The National Academy of Sciences is part of the United States National Academies, which also includes:

Presidents of the National Academy of Sciences

The President is the elected head of the Academy. An Academy member is elected by a majority vote of the membership to serve in this position for a term to be determined by the governing Council, not to exceed six years, and may be re-elected for a second term. Since the Academy was created on March 3, 1863, 21 members have served as its President. The office is currently held by atmospheric chemist Ralph J. Cicerone of the University of California, Irvine.

List of presidents

  1. Alexander Dallas Bache (1863-1867)
  2. Joseph Henry (1868-1878)
  3. William Barton Rogers (1879-1882)
  4. Othniel Charles Marsh (1883-1895)
  5. Wolcott Gibbs (1895-1900)
  6. Alexander Agassiz (1901-1907)
  7. Ira Remsen (1907-1913)
  8. William Henry Welch (1913-1917)
  9. Charles Doolittle Walcott (1917-1923)
  10. Albert Abraham Michelson (1923-1927)
  11. Thomas Hunt Morgan (1927-1931)
  12. William Wallace Campbell (1931-1935)
  13. Frank Rattray Lillie (1935-1939)
  14. Frank Baldwin Jewett (1939-1947)
  15. Alfred Newton Richards (1947-1950)
  16. Detlev Wulf Bronk (1950-1962)
  17. Frederick Seitz (1962-1969)
  18. Philip Handler (1969-1981)
  19. Frank Press (1981-1993)
  20. Bruce Alberts (1993-2005)
  21. Ralph J. Cicerone (2005-)

Highlights

Joint declaration on global warming

In 2005 the national science academies of the G8 nations (including the United States National Academy of Sciences) plus science academies of Brazil, China and India (three of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world) signed a statement on the global response to climate change. The statement stresses that the scientific understanding of climate change had become sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action.[2][3]

Awards

The Academy gives a number of different awards:

See also

References

  • [1] The Lazzaroni: science and scientists in midnineteenth-century America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Miller, Lillian B.

Notes

External links

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American Civil War (1861–1865) was a major war between the United States (the "Union") and eleven Southern slave states which declared that they had a right to secession and formed the Confederate States of America, led by President Jefferson Davis.
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A national academy is a body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates the activities of research in (nearly always) the sciences and (sometimes) other disciplines.
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Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the sixteenth President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1861 until his death on April 15, 1865. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery, he won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was
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The Italian term Lazzaroni is derived from the name of the New Testament character Lazarus, "The Patron Saint of Lepers" - and was used in different times and places for two different groups of people, having little in common with each other except for the name:

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Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17,1867), American physicist, son of Richard Bache Jr. and Sara Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Philadelphia.
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Charles Henry Davis (January 16 1807—February 18 1877) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, serving primarily during the American Civil War and with the United States Coast Survey.

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He was commissioned as a Midshipman on August 12, 1823.
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Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28 1807—December 14 1873) was a Swiss-American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist, the husband of educator Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, and one of the first world-class American scientists.
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Benjamin Peirce (pronounced purse), April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for forty years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, number theory, algebra, and the philosophy of mathematics.
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Henry Wilson (February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was a Senator from Massachusetts and the eighteenth Vice President of the United States. He was a leading Republican who devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the slavocracy, that is the
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Smithsonian Institution (pronounced [smɪθ.ˈso.ni.ˌən]) is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds
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Joseph Henry (December 17 1797 – May 13 1878) was a Scottish-American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest American scientists since Benjamin Franklin.
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Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27 1824 – November 26 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is notable for creating the Astronomical Journal, discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and the Argentine National
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The International Council for Science (ICSU), formerly called the International Council of Scientific Unions, was founded in 1931 as an international non-governmental organization devoted to international co-operation in the advancement of science.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
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National Academies Press ( NAP ) was created by the United States National Academies, to publish the reports issued by the United States National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Research Council.
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Not to be confused with the National Academy of Design.
The United States National Academies comprises four organizations: the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Institute of
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The United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, non-profit institution which was founded in 1964, under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863.
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Institute of Medicine (IOM) is one of the four United States National Academies, and is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization chartered in 1970 as a part of the National Academy of Sciences; its purpose is to provide national advice on issues relating to
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The National Research Council (NRC) of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Engineering, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.
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Ralph J. Cicerone is an American atmospheric scientist, a former chancellor of UC Irvine, and currently president of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cicerone graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering, and
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University of California, Irvine is a public coeducational research university situated in Irvine, California. Founded in 1965, it is the second-youngest University of California campus and is widely known as UCI or UC Irvine.
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Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17,1867), American physicist, son of Richard Bache Jr. and Sara Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Philadelphia.
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Joseph Henry (December 17 1797 – May 13 1878) was a Scottish-American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest American scientists since Benjamin Franklin.
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Don William Barton Rogers

William Barton Rogers in 1869
Born 7 November 1804(1804--)
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