Not to be confused with American Association for the Advancement of Science. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
AbbreviationThe American Academy; The AcademyFormationMay 4, 1780; 245 years ago (1780-05-04)TypeHonorary society and independent research centerHeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.Coordinates42°22′51″N 71°06′37″W / 42.380755°N 71.110256°W / 42.380755; -71.110256Membership5,700+ active membersPresidentLaurie L. Patton[1]SubsidiariesDaedalusWebsitewww.amacad.org 
The House of the Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin,[2] Andrew Oliver, and other Founding Fathers of the United States.[3] It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Membership in the academy is achieved through a nominating petition, review, and election process.[4] The academy's quarterly journal, Dædalus, is published by the MIT Press on behalf of the academy,[5] and has been open-access since January 2021.[6] The academy also conducts multidisciplinary public policy research.[7]
Laurie L. Patton has served as President of the Academy since January 2025.[8]
History[edit]The Academy was established by the Massachusetts legislature 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."[9] 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, included Benjamin Franklin and George Washington as well as several international honorary members. The initial volume of Academy Memoirs appeared in 1785, and the Proceedings followed in 1846. In the 1950s, the Academy launched its journal Daedalus, reflecting its commitment to a broader intellectual and socially-oriented program.[10]
Since the second half of the twentieth century, independent research has become a central focus of the Academy. In the late 1950s, arms control emerged as one of its signature concerns. The Academy also served as the catalyst in establishing the National Humanities Center in North 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 with Harvard University. More than 75 academic institutions from across the country he become Affiliates of the Academy to support this program and other Academy initiatives.[11]
The Academy has sponsored a number of awards and prizes,[12] throughout its history and has offered opportunities for fellowships and visiting scholars at the Academy.[13]
In July 2013, the Boston Globe exposed then president Leslie Berlowitz for falsifying her credentials, faking a doctorate, and consistently mistreating her staff.[14] Berlowitz subsequently resigned.[15][16]
Projects[edit] The Humanities Indicators[edit] Main article: Humanities IndicatorsA project of the Academy that equips researchers, policymakers, universities, foundations, museums, libraries, humanities councils, and other public institutions with statistical tools for answering basic questions about primary and secondary humanities education, undergraduate and graduate education in the humanities, 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.[17][18][19][20] It is modeled on the Science and Engineering Indicators, published biennially by the National Science Board as required by Congress.
Membership[edit] Founding members[edit]The following were charter members of the Academy:
John Adams Samuel Adams John Bacon James Bowdoin Charles Chauncy John Clarke Did 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 Did 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 James Winthrop Notable Members[edit]Ever since the founding of the Academy, its members he been nominated and elected by peers. Members of the Academy 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, more than 10,000 fellows he been elected. Notable members include:
John 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 Salk Eudora WeltyThe Academy has also had multiple international honorary members, including:
Jose Antonio Pantoja Hernandez Albert Einstein[21] 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 Sebastião Salgado[22]Astronomer Maria Mitchell was the first woman elected to the Academy, in 1848.[23]
The current membership encompasses over 5,700 members based across the United States and around the world. Academy members include more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.[24]
Of the Academy's 14,343 members since 1780, 1,406 are or he 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.[25]
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[edit]As of 2023, membership is divided into five classes and thirty specialties.[26]
Class I – Mathematical and physical sciences
Section 1. Mathematics, applied mathematics, and statistics Section 2. Physics Section 3. Chemistry Section 4. Astronomy, astrophysics, and earth sciences Section 5. Engineering and technologies Section 6. Computer sciencesClass II – Biological sciences
Section 1. Biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology Section 2. Cellular and developmental biology Section 3. Neurosciences Section 4. Evolution and ecology Section 5. Medical sciencesClass III – Social and behioral sciences
Section 1. Psychological sciences Section 2. Economics Section 3. Political science Section 4. Law Section 5. Archaeology and anthropology Section 6. Sociology, demography, and geography Section 7. EducationClass IV – Arts and humanities
Section 1. Philosophy Section 2. History Section 3. Literature and language studies Section 4. Literature Section 5. Visual arts Section 6. Performing arts Section 7. Religious studiesClass V – Public affairs, business, and administration
Section 1. Journalism, media, and communications Section 2. Business, corporate, and philanthropic leadership Section 3. Educational and academic leadership Section 4. Public affairs and public policy Section 5. Scientific, cultural, and nonprofit leadership Presidents, 1780–present[edit] 1780–1790 James Bowdoin 1791–1814 John Adams 1814–1820 Edward Augustus Holyoke 1820–1829 John Quincy Adams 1829–1838 Nathaniel Bowditch 1838–1839 James Jackson, M.D.[27] 1839–1846 John Pickering[28] 1846–1863 Jacob Bigelow 1863–1873 Asa Gray 1873–1880 Charles Francis Adams 1880–1892 Joseph Lovering 1892–1894 Josiah Parsons Cooke 1894–1903 Alexander Agassiz 1903–1908 William Watson Goodwin 1908–1915 John Trowbridge 1915–1917 Henry Pickering Walcott 1917–1919 Charles Pickering Bowditch 1919–1921 Theodore William Richards 1921–1924 George Foot Moore 1924–1927 Theodore Lyman 1927–1931 Edwin Bidwell Wilson 1931–1933 Jeremiah D. M. Ford 1933–1935 George Howard Parker 1935–1937 Roscoe Pound 1937–1939 Dugald C. Jackson 1939–1944 Harlow Shapley 1944–1951 Howard Mumford Jones 1951–1954 Edwin Herbert Land 1954–1957 John Ely Burchard 1957–1961 Kirtley Fletcher Mather 1961–1964 Hudson Hoagland 1964–1967 Paul A. Freund 1967–1971 Talcott Parsons 1971–1976 Harvey Brooks 1976–1979 Victor Frederick Weisskopf 1979–1982 Milton Katz 1982–1986 Herman Feshbach 1986–1989 Edward Hirsch Levi 1989–1994 Leo Beranek 1994–1997 Jarosl Pelikan 1997–2000 Daniel C. Tosteson 2000–2001 James O. Freedman 2001–2006 Patricia Meyer Spacks 2006–2009 Emilio Bizzi 2010–2013 Leslie C. Berlowitz 2014–2018 Jonathan Fanton 2019–2024 Did W. Oxtoby 2025–Present Laurie L. Patton See also[edit] American Philosophical Society National Academy of Engineering National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) National Academy of Sciences List of American Academy of Arts and Sciences members References[edit] ^ "Press Release: Announcing Laurie L. Patton as the Next President of the Academy". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. May 2, 2024. ^ Kershaw, G. E. (2014). American Academy of arts and sciences. In M. Spencer (Ed.), The Bloomsbury encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ^ "Yale Faculty Named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Yale University. May 4, 2004. Archived from the original on September 18, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2012. ^ "Academy Bylaws – American Academy of Arts & Sciences". Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2017. ^ "About the Academy". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2012. ^ "Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, reaches expanded audiences through open access". The MIT Press. Retrieved November 28, 2023. ^ "Our Work". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. ^ "Announcing Laurie L. Patton as the Next President of the Academy | American Academy of Arts and Sciences". www.amacad.org. May 2, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024. ^ "Charter of Incorporation". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2012. ^ "Gale Encyclopedia of US History: American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Answers.com. ^ "Visiting Scholars Program". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on August 30, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014. ^ "Prizes". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. ^ "Fellowships". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. ^ "Leader of Cambridge's prestigious Academy of Arts and Sciences inflated resume, falsely claiming doctorate – The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. ^ 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. ^ Academy loses a tireless advocate of arts, sciences – Letters. The Boston Globe (July 30, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-12. ^ Humanities Indicators. ^ Howard, Jennifer (January 7, 2009). "First National Picture of Trends in the Humanities Is Unveiled". Chronicle of Higher Education. ^ Flaherty, Colleen (September 3, 2013). "A New Humanities Report Card". Inside Higher Ed. ^ "The State of the Humanities: Funding 2014" (PDF). Humanities Indicators. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 25, 2019. ^ "Albert Einstein". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 2023. ^ "Mr. Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014. ^ She is an Astronomer, "Maria Mitchell". ^ "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 from the original on April 22, 2012. ^ "Member Directory". www.amacad.org. Retrieved December 14, 2021. ^ "New Members Elected in 2023". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved April 24, 2023. ^ Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll, Memoir of Nathaniel Bowditch, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1840. Cf. p.138 ^ 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 in Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, v.3 External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Official website
Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1783-1957 (Vol. 1 – Vol. 24), on JSTOR (Open access)
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol.1 (1846) – Vol.57 (1922) at Biodiversity Heritage Library (Open access)
vtePresidents of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences1780–1903
James Bowdoin (1780–1790)
John Adams (1791–1814)
Edward Augustus Holyoke (1814–1820)
John Quincy Adams (1820–1829)
Nathaniel Bowditch (1829–1838)
James Jackson (1838–1839)
John Pickering (1839–1846)
Jacob Bigelow (1846–1863)
Asa Gray (1863–1873)
Charles Francis Adams Jr. (1873–1880)
Joseph Lovering (1880–1892)
Josiah Parsons Cooke (1892–1894)
Alexander Agassiz (1894–1903)
1903–2000
William Watson Goodwin (1903–1908)
John Trowbridge (1908–1915)
Henry Pickering Walcott (1915–1917)
Charles Pickering Bowditch (1917–1919)
Theodore William Richards (1919–1921)
George Foot Moore (1921–1924)
Theodore Lyman (1924–1927)
Edwin Bidwell Wilson (1927–1931)
Jeremiah D. M. Ford (1931–1933)
George Howard Parker (1933–1935)
Roscoe Pound (1935–1937)
Dugald C. Jackson (1937–1939)
Harlow Shapley (1939–1944)
Howard Mumford Jones (1944–1951)
Edwin H. Land (1951–1954)
John Ely Burchard (1954–1957)
Kirtley F. Mather (1957–1961)
Hudson Hoagland (1961–1964)
Paul A. Freund (1964–1967)
Talcott Parsons (1967–1971)
Harvey Brooks (1971–1976)
Victor Weisskopf (1976–1979)
Milton Katz (1979–1982)
Herman Feshbach (1982–1986)
Edward H. Levi (1986–1989)
Leo Beranek (1989–1994)
Jarosl Pelikan (1994–1997)
Daniel C. Tosteson (1997–2000)
2000–present
James O. Freedman (2000–2001)
Patricia Meyer Spacks (2001–2006)
Emilio Bizzi (2006–2009)
Leslie Berlowitz (2010–2013)
Jonathan Fanton (2014–2018)
Did W. Oxtoby (2019–2024)
Laurie L. Patton (2025–)
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