The corresponding member is one of the possible membership types in some organizations, especially in the learned societies and scientific academies.
This title existed or exist in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
,
GDR,
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
,
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic ,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
[ЧЛЕН-КОРЕСПОНДЕНТ]
/ref> Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
, Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
.[ЧЛЕН-КОРЕСПОНДЕНТ]
/ref>
Original category of membership
Historically, this kind of membership was usual for the individuals living far from the academy or outside the country where the central academy offices are located. Because such people were unable to attend meetings, for organizational reasons they had to communicate their scientific contributions by " correspondence". This is why the status name includes the word “corresponding”.
The problem of accessibility is important also now and accounted for by some institutions in the world. So, for example, the Australian Academy of Science
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...
entitles the prominent foreign researchers only to corresponding membership; among the people with this status are David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...
(United Kingdom), Rolf M. Zinkernagel
Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC (born 6 January 1944) is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how t ...
(Switzerland), Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the ...
(USA) and Gunnar Öquist
Gunnar Öquist (born 1941) is a Swedish biologist and professor of plant physiology at Umeå University, and served as the permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 2003 to 2010.
He graduated from Uppsala University in 19 ...
(Sweden).
Modern category of membership
With a development of transportation services, the distance problem is gradually getting milder. As a result, the term “corresponding member” has changed its initial meaning. Presently, in the most of academies where a corresponding membership exists, this is, in fact, a membership of the lower level, as compared to the full members called academician
An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life.
Accor ...
s. For example, in the Academies of Science in some post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...
(e.g., Russia, Belarus, Ukraine), following the custom of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...
, a scientist is usually first elected to the corresponding membership and several years later, if he (she) demonstrates new outstanding achievements, to the full membership.
In some organizations, “corresponding” membership may be preferred by an applicant (which can be an individual or a legal entity) itself. In particular, the International Organization of Legal Metrology
The International Organization of Legal Metrology ( - OIML), is an intergovernmental organisation that was created in 1955 to promote the global harmonisation of the legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade.
Such ...
offers two options for the countries: "member" and "corresponding member", and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine also has the full and corresponding variants of membership for the specialists.Membership types in the AAPM
( AAPM website).
Notes
References
{{reflist
Academic titles