The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest
learned societies
A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership may ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. It was founded in 1780 during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
by
John Adams,
John Hancock,
James Bowdoin,
Andrew Oliver, and other
Founding Fathers of the United States. It is headquartered in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
.
Membership in the academy is achieved through a thorough petition, review, and election process. The academy's quarterly journal, ''
Dædalus
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, a ...
'', is published by
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.
History
The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...
on behalf of the academy. The academy also conducts multidisciplinary public policy research.
History
The Academy was established by the
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
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." 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
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
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.
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
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
. 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
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. More than 75 academic institutions from across the country have become Affiliates of the Academy to support this program and other Academy initiatives.
The Academy has sponsored a number of awards and prizes, throughout its history and has offered opportunities for fellowships and visiting scholars at the Academy.
In July 2013, the
Boston Globe exposed then president
Leslie Berlowitz
Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (March 1, 1944 – June 13, 2020) was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Berlowitz became the Academy's executive officer in 1996 and was later promoted to Chief Executive Of ...
for falsifying her credentials, faking a doctorate, and consistently mistreating her staff. Berlowitz subsequently resigned.
Projects
The Humanities Indicators
A 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
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
, 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. It is modeled on the Science and Engineering Indicators, published biennially by the
National Science Board
The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President and the Congress. The NSB also serves as an ind ...
as required by
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
.
Membership
Founding members
Charter members of the Academy were
John Adams,
Samuel Adams,
John Bacon, James Bowdoin,
Charles Chauncy
Charles Chauncy (baptised 5 November 1592 – 19 February 1672) was an Anglo-American Congregational clergyman, educator, and secondarily, a physician. He is also known as the 2nd President of Harvard.
Life
Charles Chauncy was born at Arde ...
,
John Clarke,
David Cobb,
Samuel Cooper,
Nathan Cushing
Nathan Cushing (1742 – November 4, 1812) was a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1790 to 1800. He was appointed by Governor John Hancock to the seat vacated by the elevation of Nathaniel Sargent to chief justice.
Born in ...
,
Thomas Cushing
Thomas Cushing III (March 24, 1725 – February 28, 1788) was an American lawyer, merchant, and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in Boston politics, he represented the city in the provincial assembly from 1761 to its dissolution ...
,
William Cushing,
Tristram Dalton,
Francis Dana,
Samuel Deane
Samuel H. Deane represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the Great and General Court
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "Gen ...
, Perez Fobes, Caleb Gannett, Henry Gardner,
Benjamin Guild
Benjamin Guild (1749-1792) was a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century. He ran the "Boston Book Store" and a circulating subscription library in the 1780s and 1790s at no.59 Cornhill, "first door south of the Old-Brick Mee ...
,
John Hancock,
Joseph Hawley,
Edward Augustus Holyoke, Ebenezer Hunt,
Jonathan Jackson, Charles Jarvis,
Samuel Langdon
Samuel Langdon (January 12, 1723 – November 29, 1797) was an American Congregational clergyman and educator. After serving as pastor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was appointed president of Harvard University in 1774. He held that post ...
,
Levi Lincoln, Daniel Little, Elijah Lothrup,
John Lowell
John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distr ...
, Samuel Mather, Samuel Moody,
Andrew Oliver, Joseph Orne, Theodore Parsons,
George Partridge,
Robert Treat Paine
Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was an American lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. ...
, Phillips Payson,
Samuel Phillips, John Pickering,
Oliver Prescott
Oliver Prescott (27 April 1731, in Groton, Massachusetts – 17 November 1804, in Groton) was a colonial-era physician, soldier, and judge.
Biography
He graduated from Harvard in 1750, and was distinguished at college for his literary attainment ...
, Zedekiah Sanger,
Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant
Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent (frequently also spelled Sargeant, November 2, 1731 – October 12, 1791) was a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1782 to 1791. He was the second Chief Justice of the court from 1790 to 1791, after ...
, Micajah Sawyer,
Theodore Sedgwick
Theodore Sedgwick (May 9, 1746January 24, 1813) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served in elected state government and as a delegate to the Continental Congress, a U.S. representative, and a senator from Massachusetts. H ...
, William Sever,
David Sewall
David Sewall (October 7, 1735 – October 22, 1825) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine.
Education and career
Born on October 7, 1735, in York, in that area of the Province of Massach ...
,
Stephen Sewall
Stephen Sewall (December 14, 1702 – September 10, 1760) was a judge in colonial Massachusetts. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he was the son of Stephen Sewall, the clerk of court at the Salem witchcraft trials, and a nephew of Chief Justice ...
, John Sprague, Ebenezer Storer,
Caleb Strong
Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 – November 7, 1819) was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father who served as the sixth and tenth governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in draf ...
,
James Sullivan, John Bernard Sweat, Nathaniel Tracy,
Cotton Tufts
Cotton Tufts (30 May 1734 in Medford, Province of Massachusetts – 8 December 1815 in Weymouth, Massachusetts) was a Massachusetts physician. He was a cousin of Abigail Adams.
Biography
He was the grandson of Peter Tufts, who emigrated to Mas ...
,
James Warren, Samuel West,
Edward Wigglesworth,
Joseph Willard, Abraham Williams, Nehemiah Williams, Samuel Williams, and
James Winthrop
James Winthrop (March 28, 1752, Cambridge, Massachusetts – September 26, 1821, Cambridge) was an American librarian and jurist. Winthrop was the son of John Winthrop (educator), physicist John Winthrop. He was wounded at the Battle of Bunker ...
.
Members
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 as John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
,
John James Audubon,
Joseph Henry,
Washington Irving,
Josiah Willard Gibbs,
Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is oft ...
,
Willa Cather,
T. S. Eliot,
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...
,
Jonas Salk
Jonas Edward Salk (; born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New ...
,
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...
,
Oprah Winfrey,
Duke Ellington, and
Martha Nussbaum.
International honorary members have included Jose Antonio Pantoja Hernandez,
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
,
Leonhard Euler,
Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...
,
Alexander von Humboldt,
Leopold von Ranke,
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
,
Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner ...
,
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
,
Pablo Picasso,
Liu Guosong
Liu Kuo-sung (Liu Guosong) (; born 26 April 1932) is a Chinese artist based in Taipei, Taiwan. Liu is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most important advocates and practitioners of modernist Chinese painting. He is also a writer on co ...
,
Lucian Michael Freud
Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...
,
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
,
Galina Ulanova,
Werner Heisenberg,
Alec Guinness,
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (; born 13 June 1954) is a Nigerian economist, who has been serving as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization since March 2021. Notably, she is the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organiza ...
,
Menahem Yaari
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, death_place =
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,
Yitzhak Apeloig
Yitzhak Apeloig (יצחק אפלויג; born 1 September 1944 in Uzbekistan) is a pioneer in the computational chemistry field of the Ab initio quantum chemistry methods for predicting and preparing the physical and chemical properties of mater ...
,
Zvi Galil
Zvi Galil ( he, צבי גליל; born June 26, 1947) is an Israeli-American computer scientist and mathematician. Galil served as the President of Tel Aviv University from 2007 through 2009. From 2010 to 2019, he was the dean of the Georgia Instit ...
,
Haim Harari, and
Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.
He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press pu ...
.
Astronomer
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell (Help:IPA/English, /məˈraɪə/; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later kno ...
was the first woman elected to the Academy, in 1848.
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.
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.
† Excludes members affiliated exclusively with associated national laboratories.
Classes and sections
The current membership is divided into five classes and twenty-four sections.
Class I – Mathematical and physical sciences
* Section 1.
Mathematics,
applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...
and
statistics
* Section 2.
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
* Section 3.
Chemistry
* Section 4.
Astronomy (including
astrophysics) and
earth science
* Section 5. Engineering sciences and
technologies
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
* Section 6.
Computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
(including
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
and
information technologies
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
)
Class II – Biological sciences
* Section 1.
Biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
,
biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
and
molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
* Section 2.
Cellular and
developmental biology,
microbiology and
immunology
Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see the ...
(including
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
)
* Section 3.
Neurosciences,
cognitive sciences, and behavioral biology
* Section 4.
Evolutionary and
population biology and
ecology
* Section 5.
Medical sciences (including
physiology and
pharmacology), clinical medicine, and
public health
Class III – Social sciences
* Section 1.
Social and
developmental psychology and education
* Section 2.
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
* Section 3.
Political science,
international relations, and
public policy
* Section 4.
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
(including the
practice of law
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the profess ...
)
* Section 5.
Archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
,
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
,
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
and
demography
Class IV – Arts and humanities
* Section 1.
Philosophy and
religious studies
* Section 2.
History
* Section 3.
Literary criticism (including
philology)
* Section 4.
Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
(
fiction,
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, short stories,
nonfiction,
playwriting
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
screenwriting
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...
and
translation)
* Section 5.
Visual arts and
performing arts – criticism and practice
Class V – Public affairs, business, and administration
* Section 1. Journalism and communications
* Section 2. Business, corporate and philanthropic leadership
* Section 3.
Educational, scientific, cultural and philanthropic administration
Presidents, 1780–present
* 1780–1790 James Bowdoin
* 1791–1814
John Adams
* 1814–1820
Edward Augustus Holyoke
* 1820–1829
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...
* 1829–1838
Nathaniel Bowditch
* 1838–1839
James Jackson, M.D.[Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll]
''Memoir of Nathaniel Bowditch''
Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1840. Cf
p.138
/ref>
* 1839–1846 John Pickering[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
* 1846–1863 Jacob Bigelow
* 1863–1873 Asa Gray
* 1873–1880 Charles Francis Adams
* 1880–1892 Joseph Lovering
Joseph Lovering (25 December 1813 – 18 January 1892) was an American scientist and educator.
Biography
Lovering graduated from Harvard in 1833. In 1838, he was named Hollis Professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard. He held thi ...
* 1892–1894 Josiah Parsons Cooke
Josiah Parsons Cooke (October 12, 1827 – September 3, 1894) was an American scientist who worked at Harvard University and was instrumental in the measurement of atomic weights, inspiring America's first Nobel laureate in chemistry, Theodore R ...
* 1894–1903 Alexander Agassiz
* 1903–1908 William Watson Goodwin
* 1908–1915 John Trowbridge
* 1915–1917 Henry Pickering Walcott
* 1917–1919 Charles Pickering Bowditch
Charles Pickering Bowditch (September 30, 1842 – June 1, 1921) was an American financier, archaeologist, cryptographer and linguistics scholar who specialized in Mayan epigraphy.
Bowditch was born in Boston into the Massachusetts Bowditch fami ...
* 1919–1921 Theodore William Richards
* 1921–1924 George Foot Moore
* 1924–1927 Theodore Lyman
* 1927–1931 Edwin Bidwell Wilson
Edwin Bidwell Wilson (April 25, 1879 – December 28, 1964) was an American mathematician, statistician, physicist and general polymath. He was the sole protégé of Yale University physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs and was mentor to MIT economist ...
* 1931–1933 Jeremiah D. M. Ford
Jeremiah Denis Mathias Ford (1873–1958) was an American educator and author. He was the Smith Professor Emeritus of the French and Spanish Languages and Literature at Harvard University from 1907 to 1943. He was the youngest-ever to be appointe ...
* 1933–1935 George Howard Parker
* 1935–1937 Roscoe Pound
* 1937–1939 Dugald C. Jackson
Dugald Caleb Jackson (13 February, 1865, Kennett Square – July 1, 1951) was an American electrical engineer. He received the IEEE Edison Medal for "outstanding and inspiring leadership in engineering education and in the field of generation an ...
* 1939–1944 Harlow Shapley
* 1944–1951 Howard Mumford Jones Howard Mumford Jones (April 16, 1892 – May 11, 1980) was an American intellectual historian, literary critic, journalist, poet, and professor of English at the University of Michigan and later at Harvard University.
Jones was the book editor for ...
* 1951–1954 Edwin Herbert Land
Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an Russian-American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a ...
* 1954–1957 John Ely Burchard
John Ely Burchard (December 8, 1898 Marshall, Minnesota - December 25, 1975 Boston) was an American professor and dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a historian and architectural critic. He was President of the American ...
* 1957–1961 Kirtley Fletcher Mather
Kirtley Fletcher Mather (February 13, 1888May 5, 1978) was an American geologist and faculty member at Harvard University. An expert on petroleum geology and mineralogy, Mather was a prominent scholar, advocate for academic freedom, social activi ...
* 1961–1964 Hudson Hoagland
Hudson Hoagland (December 5, 1899 – March 4, 1982) was an American neuroscientist, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, from 1961 to 1964.
Originally from Rockaway, New Jersey, he graduated from Columbia University, Massac ...
* 1964–1967 Paul A. Freund
Paul Abraham Freund (February 16, 1908February 5, 1992) was an American jurist and law professor. He taught most of his life at Harvard Law School and is known for his writings on the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of the United ...
* 1967–1971 Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in soci ...
* 1971–1976 Harvey Brooks
* 1976–1979 Victor Frederick Weisskopf
Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels B ...
* 1979–1982
* 1982–1986 Herman Feshbach
Herman Feshbach (February 2, 1917, in New York City – 22 December 2000, in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American physicist. He was an Institute Professor Emeritus of physics at MIT. Feshbach is best known for Feshbach resonance and for wr ...
* 1986–1989 Edward Hirsch Levi
Edward Hirsch Levi (June 26, 1911 – March 7, 2000) was an American law professor, academic leader, and government lawyer. He served as dean of the University of Chicago Law School from 1950 to 1962, president of the University of Chicago from ...
* 1989–1994 Leo Beranek
Leo Leroy Beranek (September 15, 1914 – October 10, 2016) was an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor, and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies). He authored ''Acoustics'', considered a cl ...
* 1994–1997 Jaroslav Pelikan
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. (December 17, 1923 – May 13, 2006) was an American scholar of the history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history at Yale University.
Early years
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. was born on Dec ...
* 1997–2000 Daniel C. Tosteson
Daniel C. Tosteson (February 5, 1925 Milwaukee - May 27, 2009 Boston) was an American academic, and physiologist. He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1997 to 2000. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medic ...
* 2000–2001 James O. Freedman
James Oliver Freedman (September 21, 1935 – March 21, 2006) was an American educator and academic administrator. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he served as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1979 to 1 ...
* 2001–2006 Patricia Meyer Spacks
Patricia Ann Meyer Spacks (born 1929) is an American literary scholar. She is the Edgar F. Shannon Professor Emerita at the University of Virginia and former President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Modern Language Associat ...
* 2006–2009 Emilio Bizzi
Emilio Bizzi (born February 22, 1933) is a neuroscientist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is an investigator of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and a faculty member in the Department of Brain an ...
* 2010–2013 Leslie C. Berlowitz
Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (March 1, 1944 – June 13, 2020) was President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Berlowitz became the Academy's executive officer in 1996 and was later promoted to Chief Executive Of ...
* 2014–2018 Jonathan Fanton
* 2019– David W. Oxtoby
David William Oxtoby (born 1951) is an American academic who served as the ninth president of Pomona College. He held the position from July 1, 2003, to July 1, 2017. A theoretical chemist, he received his bachelor's degree in chemistry and phy ...
See also
* American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
* National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
* National Academy of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...
(formerly the Institute of Medicine)
* National Academy of Sciences
*List of American Academy of Arts and Sciences members
Following is a list of elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during th ...
References
External links
*
Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol 1, 1783
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Vol.1 (1846) – Vol.57 (1922) at Biodiversity Heritage Library
{{Authority control
1780 establishments in Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Member organizations of the American Council of Learned Societies
Organizations established in 1780