National Academy of Sciences

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National Academy of Sciences
NationalAcademySciences 07110011.jpg
National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences is located in Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences
Location 2101 Constitution Ave., NW.
Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°53′34.8″N 77°2′51.72″W / 38.893000°N 77.0477000°W / 38.893000; -77.0477000Coordinates: 38°53′34.8″N 77°2′51.72″W / 38.893000°N 77.0477000°W / 38.893000; -77.0477000
Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue
NRHP Reference # 74002168
Added to NRHP March 15, 1974

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private non-profit organization in the United States. It was founded in 1863 as a result of an Act of Congress that was approved by Abraham Lincoln.

As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honors in U.S. science. Members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation" on science, engineering, and medicine.

The National Academy of Sciences is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which also includes the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Medicine.

The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.

Mission[edit]

Established by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. … The National Academy of Sciences charter commits the Academy to provide scientific advice to the government "whenever called upon" by any government department. The Academy receives no compensation from the government for its services.[1]

History[edit]

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 the original NAS members came from the so-called "Scientific Lazzaroni", an informal network of mostly physical scientists working in the vicinity of Cambridge, Massachusetts (c. 1850).[2]

The Keck Center of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., one of several facilities where the National Academy of Sciences maintains offices.

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 Institution.[3]

Agassiz was to come to Washington at the government's expense to plan the organization with the others. This bypassed Joseph Henry, who was reluctant to have a bill for such an academy presented to Congress. This was in the belief that such a resolution would be "opposed as something at variance with our democratic institutions". Nevertheless, Henry soon became the second President of NAS. 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".[4]

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.[4]

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,[4] whether or not they were named as incorporators. Later, Agassiz admitted that they had "started on the wrong track".[citation needed]

The Act states:

[T]he Academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art, the actual expense of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose, but the Academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any services to the Government of the United States.

— An Act to Incorporate the National Academy of Sciences, [5]

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.[4]

In 1870, the congressional charter was amended to remove the limitation on the number of members.[6]

Activities[edit]

As of 2013, the National Academy of Sciences includes about 2,200 members and 400 foreign associates.[7] It employed about 1,100 staff in 2005.[8] The current members annually elect new members for life. Nearly 200 members have won a Nobel Prize.[7]

The National Academy of Sciences is a 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.

Since 2004, the National Academy of Sciences has administered the Marian Koshland Science Museum, to provide public exhibits and programming related to its policy work. The museum's current exhibits focus on climate change and infectious disease.

Publications[edit]

The National Academy of Sciences meets annually in Washington, D.C., documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, its scholarly journal. The National Academies Press is the publisher for the National Academies, and makes more than 5,000 publications freely available on its website.[9]

Facilities[edit]

The National Academies' Beckman Conference Center, Irvine, California

The National Academy of Sciences maintains multiple buildings around the United States.

The historic National Academy of Sciences building is located at 2101 Constitution Avenue, in northwest Washington, DC; it sits on the National Mall, adjacent to the Federal Reserve and in front of the State Department. This neoclassical building by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was dedicated in 1924[10] and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Goodhue enagaged a team of artists and architectural sculptors including Albert Herter, Lee Lawrie, and Hildreth Meiere to design interior embellishments celebrating the history and significance of science.[11] The building is used for lectures, symposia, exhibitions, and concerts, in addition to annual meetings of the NAS, NAE, and NAM. The 2012 Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching ceremony was held here on March 5, 2014. Approximately 150 staff members work at the NAS Building. In June 2012, it reopened to visitors after a major two-year restoration project which restored and improved the building's historic spaces, increased accessibility, and brought the building's aging infrastructure and facilities up to date.[12]

More than 1,000 National Academies staff members work at The Keck Center of the National Academies at 500 Fifth Street in northwest Washington, D.C. The Keck Center provides meeting space and houses the National Academies Press Bookstore.[13] The Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences – located at 525 E St., N.W. – hosts visits from the public, school field trips, traveling exhibits, and permanent science exhibits.[14]

The NAS also maintains conference centers in California and Massachusetts.[13] The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies is located on 100 Academy Drive in Irvine, California, near the campus of the University of California, Irvine; it offers a conference center and houses several NAS programs. The J. Erik Jonsson Conference Center located at 314 Quissett Avenue in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is another conference facility.

Governance[edit]

The Academy is governed by a 17-member Council, made up of five officers (president, vice president, home secretary, foreign secretary, and treasurer) and 12 Councilors, all of whom are elected from among the Academy membership.[15]

Presidents of the National Academy of Sciences[edit]

The President is the head of the Academy, 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. The Academy has had 21 presidents since its foundation. The current President is atmospheric chemist, Ralph J. Cicerone, formerly of the University of California, Irvine, whose term expires June 30, 2016.[16]

Highlights[edit]

Joint declaration on global warming[edit]

In 2005, the national science academies of the G8 nations (including the 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.[17][18]

On 7 May 2010, a letter signed by 255 Academy members was published in Science magazine, decrying "political assaults" against climate change scientists.[19][20] This responded to a civil investigative demand being served on the University of Virginia by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, seeking a broad range of documents from Michael E. Mann, who was formerly an assistant professor there from 1999-2005.[21][22] Mann, who currently works at Penn State, is a climate change researcher, and Cuccinelli alleges that Mann may have defrauded Virginia taxpayers in the course of his environmental research. Investigations had cleared Mann of charges that he falsified or suppressed data.[23]

Awards[edit]

The Academy gives a number of different awards:

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Overview: NAS Mission". National Academies of Science. Retrieved 25 April 2015. 
  2. ^ ITS. "Founding of the National Academy of Sciences". .nationalacademies.org. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  3. ^ For an analysis of the motives by Alexander Dallas Bache for founding the NAS, see Jansen, Axel (2011). Alexander Dallas Bache: Building the American Nation through Science and Education in the Nineteenth Century. Campus. p. 285-314.
  4. ^ a b c d Miller, Lillian (1972). The Lazzaroni: science and scientists in mid-nineteenth-century America. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 121. Retrieved 2007-10-26. 
  5. ^ OCGA. "An Act to Incorporate the National Academy of Sciences". .nationalacademies.org. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  6. ^ A Chronicle of Public Laws Calling for Action by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, [and] National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academies. 1985. p. 5. NAP:11820. Retrieved 22 March 2014.  [16 Stat. 277 and 36 U.S.C. § 252], Accessed at Google Books
  7. ^ a b "About NAS: Membership". National Academy of Sciences. 2013. 
  8. ^ Alberts, Bruce (2005). "Summing Up: Creating a Scientific Temper for the World" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences. 
  9. ^ "Newsroom". National-Academies.org. 2011-06-02. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  10. ^ National Academy of Sciences. "The NAS Building... a Temple of Science". Retrieved 12 October 2010. 
  11. ^ "A Home for Science in America". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2015-07-27. 
  12. ^ "Restoration of Historic National Academy of Sciences Building". CPNAS. National Academy of Sciences. 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013. 
  13. ^ a b National Academy of Sciences. "Visiting Our Buildings". Retrieved 12 October 2010. 
  14. ^ "Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences". Retrieved 12 October 2010. 
  15. ^ "Constitution". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2014-07-20. 
  16. ^ "Presidents of the National Academies". National Academy of Sciences. 2009. 
  17. ^ "Joint academies statement on climate change". Royalsociety.org. 2005-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  18. ^ "Joint science academies' statement: Global response to climate change (Adobe PDF File)". Royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2012-03-12. 
  19. ^ Helderman, Rosalind (May 9, 2010). "U-Va. urged to fight Cuccinelli subpoena in probe of scientist". Washington Post. p. C5. 
  20. ^ "Open letter: Climate change and the integrity of science". The Guardian. May 6, 2010. 
  21. ^ "Curriculum Vitae: Michael E. Mann". psu dot edu. Retrieved July 5, 2013. 
  22. ^ Helderman, Rosalind (May 9, 2010). "U-Va. urged to fight Cuccinelli subpoena in probe of scientist". Washington Post. p. C5. 
  23. ^ Foley, Henry C.; Alan W. Scaroni; Candice A. Yekel (3 February 2010). "RA-10 Inquiry Report: Concerning the Allegations of Research Misconduct Against Dr. Michael E. Mann, Department of Meteorology, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University" (PDF). The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved 7 February 2010. 

Further reading[edit]

  • Boffey, Philip, The Brain Bank of America, with an introduction by Ralph Nader, (McGraw-Hill, 1975). (critique)
  • Stephen Hilgartner, Science on Stage (Stanford University Press, 2000). (sociological study)

External links[edit]

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