Academy projects in Science, Engineering, and Technology seek to strengthen the capacity of science, engineering, and technology to improve the common good. This goal has never been more important for the nation or for the world than it is today. Global challenges increasingly require collaboration across disciplinary, professional, and national boundaries. Rather than generate new scientific research, the role of the Academy has been uniquely interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral, bridging the social sciences and arts with the physical sciences to support a national understanding, belief, and trust in science and discovery. Leveraging the diverse expertise of its members and a wide network of external specialists, the Academy conducts in-depth studies to assess the implications of scientific and technological progress. These studies inform actionable policy recommendations for stakeholders across government, academia, the nonprofit sector, and industry.
ADVISORS
Robert F. Higgins, Cochair
Causeway Media Partners
Shirley Tilghman, Cochair
Princeton University
Maya Ajmera
Science News
Ken Alder
Northwestern University
Nancy C. Andrews
Boston Children’s Hospital
Juan Enriquez
Excel Venture Management
Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
University of California, Irvine
Fred H. Gage
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Paula A. Johnson
Wellesley College
James M. Manyika
Google
Joe Palca
formerly, National Public Radio
Mercedes Pascual
New York University
Peter L. Slavin
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
ADVISORS’ MEETINGS
March 4, 2025;
November 7, 2025
Science and the Public: Virtual Discussion Groups
To help shape a new initiative for 2026–2028 that will focus on the evolving relationship between science and the public, the Academy held several small group discussions with members. The new initiative aims to build on the Academy’s commitment to public trust in science and to strengthening democracy through the cultivation of thought leadership. Academy President Laurie L. Patton participated in the discussion groups, which helped to refine the goals and structure of the new initiative. They reflected on where the Academy’s interdisciplinary strengths can have the greatest impact and how the Academy might balance a long-term vision with responsiveness to the current moment.
Discussion Group: August 18, 2025
Participants
Rita Colwell
University of Maryland
Adam Falk
Wildlife Conservation Society
Peggy Hamburg
The Global Network of Science Academies
Jennifer Hochschild
Harvard University
Ronald Linde
The Ronald and Maxine Linde Foundation
Sara Schupf
New York, NY
Larry Shapiro
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Discussion Group: August 25, 2025
Participants
Harvey Fineberg
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Fred Gage
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Gilbert Omenn
University of Michigan
Marcia McNutt
National Academy of Sciences
Cherry Murray
University of Arizona
Chandrika Tandon
Tandon Capital Associates
Discussion Group: September 12, 2025
Participants
Cynthia Friend
Kavli Foundation
Charles Gammie
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jon Krosnick
Stanford University
David Skorton
Association of American Medical Colleges
Brooke Smith
Kavli Foundation
David Spergel
Simons Foundation
Discussion Group: September 24, 2025
Participants
Ken Alder
Northwestern University
Juan Enriquez
Excel Venture Management
Holden Thorp
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Maria Zuber
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Discussion Group: September 26, 2025
Participants
Mary-Claire King
University of Washington
Shirley Malcom
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Helene Muller-Landau
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
David Skorton
Association of American Medical Colleges
Shirley Tilghman
Princeton University
Project
AI and Mental Health Care
America is suffering a mental health crisis, with up to 40 percent of Americans now living with a chronic mental health disorder. An ongoing provider shortage and poor insurance coverage mean that less than half receive treatment–and the rates are even lower for minority populations and those living in rural areas. Given the serious physical, emotional, and societal consequences of untreated mental health disorders, particularly among youth and historically underrepresented groups, it is imperative to understand the causes and find effective solutions to this epidemic.
Technology may be both mental health’s savior and its downfall. Americans on average spend six hours a day consuming digital media, which has mixed effects of connecting communities and empowering the disenfranchised, while also increasing loneliness and creating powerful addictions. Technology can improve diagnosis and treatment through AI-assisted psychotherapy, virtual reality exposure therapy, and behavioral tracking to identify mental distress. With 92 percent of Americans owning a smartphone, building access and increasing equity in health care is possible if significant concerns about coverage and privacy are addressed.
While many studies examine how social media impacts the mental health of children and young adults, these investigations cannot keep pace with the rate of technological change. It is important to acknowledge the significant societal changes that are already taking place. Systems in health care, education, and policy need tools and guardrails to support innovation and protect the most vulnerable groups in society.
The project on AI and Mental Health Care leverages the Academy’s power to convene interdisciplinary groups to help identify key policy priorities that will advance the understanding and application of emerging technologies in mental health.
PROJECT CHAIRS
Paul Dagum
Applied Cognition
Sherry Glied
New York University
Alan Leshner
American Association for the Advancement of Science (Emeritus)
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Daniel Barron
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Marian Croak
Google
Alison Darcy
WoeBot
Holly DuBois
Avail Telemedicine
Henry T. Greely
Stanford University
Eric Horvitz
Microsoft
Kacie Kelly
Meadows Institute
Arthur Kleinman
Harvard University
Jaron Lanier
Microsoft
Robert Levenson
University of California, Berkeley
Peter Slavin
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Sherry Turkle
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PROJECT STAFF
Kate Carter
John E. Bryson Director of Science, Engineering, and Technology
Gates Palissery
Hellman & Simons Fellow in Science and Technology Policy
Peter Robinson
Chief Program Officer
Jennifer Smith
Program Associate for Science, Engineering, and Technology
Project Publication
AI and Mental Health Care: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2025)
Project Meetings
Steering Committee Meeting
March 4, 2025
Virtual
Dr. Cinnamon Bloss (University of California, San Diego) spoke about her work to foster greater empathy in health care by using technology. She described the EMPATH-AI project, which focuses on developing evidence-based practices and applications for therapeutic AI tools. At the meeting, the Steering Committee also reviewed draft questions that will shape the project’s final product and outlined a roadmap for future inquiry.
Steering Committee Meeting
April 21, 2025
Virtual
Steering Committee members discussed the final product for the project, which will reflect diverse viewpoints and a wide range of perspectives on the use of AI in mental health care.
Other Virtual Steering Committee Meetings
May 20, 2025; June 23, 2025; August 25, 2025
Outreach Meetings with State Legislatures & Professional Organizations
August–December 2025
The project chairs, steering committee members, and project staff met with several members of Congress to discuss policy challenges and opportunities for using artificial intelligence technology to expand access to mental health care. This outreach included meetings with Senator Kristen Gonzalez (NY), Senator James Maroney (CT), Senator Michael Moore (MA), Representative Meghan Kilcoyne (MA), and Senator Monique Priestly (VT), and with leaders at the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, National Association of Social Workers, and Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System.
LAUNCH EVENT
AI and Mental Health Care: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
December 9, 2025
Virtual
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming mental health care, from chatbots that offer support for anxiety and depression to predictive tools that help clinicians identify risk sooner. As these technologies grow more advanced and accessible, they also raise urgent questions. Are they safe? Are they effective? And what are the ethical and societal stakes?
This event marked the release of the project’s final product and highlighted the goals of the report, which include fostering deliberative discourse and serving as a foundational scholarly agenda to guide future researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
Speakers and Panelists
Paul Dagum
Applied Cognition
Sanjay Gupta
Emory University School of Medicine; CNN
Kacie Kelly
Meadows Institute
Arthur Kleinman
Harvard University
Alan Leshner
American Association for the Advancement of Science (Emeritus)
Laurie L. Patton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member Events
What Is Creativity in the Age of AI?
August 11, 2025
Virtual
As part of a series of interdisciplinary activities on the topic of technology and identity, this event focused on the evolving relationship between human expression and AI, and considered how artists and thinkers can preserve meaning and maintain creativity in an AI-dominated world. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform how stories, images, music, and inherently human cultural artifacts are created. As these tools advance, they raise questions about the nature of creativity. What makes art unique? Why do we create? And what happens if we stop?
Speakers
Holly Case
Brown University
Meghan O’Gieblyn
Writer
Laurie L. Patton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Joanna Scott, Moderator
University of Rochester
Modernizing Tenure
Cohosted with Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA)
November 6, 2025
House of the Academy, Cambridge, MA
This workshop explored key questions that guide institutional strategies and advance collective progress on tenure, such as: What do institutions truly value, and how are those values reflected–or neglected–in existing review, promotion, and tenure structures? What opportunities exist to reward contributions that recognize collaboration, equity, engagement, and societal relevance? How might we design flexible,
context-sensitive frameworks that honor both institutional autonomy and a shared commitment to research in service of the public? This effort extends beyond institutional improvement. It aims to rebuild trust in science by aligning academic values with the concerns and priorities of the public.
Chair
Ben Vinson III
Howard University
Speakers
Steve Goodman
Stanford University
Erin McKiernan
National Autonomous University of Mexico; Open Research Community Accelerator
C. Brandon Ogbunu
Yale University; Santa Fe Institute
Christina Ravelo
University of California Santa Cruz
ACADEMY PARTNERS
Greg Tanabaum
Executive Director, Open Research Community Accelerator
Caitlin Carter
Director of Communities & Partnerships, Open Research Community Accelerator
PROJECT STAFF
Kate Carter
John E. Bryson Director of Science, Engineering, and Technology
Gates Palissery
Hellman & Simons Fellow in Science and Technology Policy
Peter Robinson
Chief Program Officer
Jennifer Smith
Program Associate for Science, Engineering, and Technology
Trust in Science
Science Funding Roundtables
As federal support for science declines and uncertainty regarding the future of science research grows, there is a pressing need for thoughtful, cross-sector dialogue about how to sustain the scientific enterprise in service of the public good.
Academy President Laurie L. Patton participated in these roundtables, which draw on the Academy’s convening power to bring thought leaders together to reflect on the current science funding landscape and explore how philanthropy, government, and industry can collaborate to build a more resilient ecosystem. By examining the science funding crisis, the Academy can develop a long-term blueprint for action to inform and empower leaders.
Roundtable: Urgent Threats to Science Funding
August 15, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Nancy C. Andrews, Chair
Boston Children’s Hospital
Angela Bednarek
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Rita Colwell
University of Maryland
Harvey Fineberg
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Frances Hellman
University of California, Berkeley
Jennifer Hochschild
Harvard University
Cynthia Larive
University of California, Santa Cruz
Terry Magnuson
UNC School of Medicine
Marcia McNutt
National Academy of Sciences
Richard Meserve
Covington and Burling LLP
Louis Muglia
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
David Spergel
Simons Foundation
Maria Zuber, Moderator
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roundtable: Building a Resilient Funding Model
August 22, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Nancy C. Andrews, Chair
Boston Children’s Hospital
Angela Bednarek
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Rita Colwell
University of Maryland
Jennifer Hochschild
Harvard University
Cynthia Larive
University of California, Santa Cruz
Terry Magnuson
UNC School of Medicine
Marcia McNutt
National Academy of Sciences
Richard Meserve
Covington and Burling LLP
Louis Muglia, Moderator
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
David Spergel
Simons Foundation
Maria Zuber
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roundtable: Systematic Challenges in Science
August 29, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Nancy C. Andrews, Chair
Boston Children’s Hospital
Angela Bednarek
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Tony Coles
Cerevel Therapeutics
Rita Colwell
University of Maryland
Harvey Fineberg
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Jennifer Hochschild, Moderator
Harvard University
Charles L. Isbell Jr.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Cynthia Larive
University of California, Santa Cruz
Jonathan Levin
Stanford University
Terry Magnuson
UNC School of Medicine
Marcia McNutt
National Academy of Sciences
Richard Meserve
Covington and Burling LLP
Louis Muglia
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Sudip Parikh
American Association for the Advancement of Science
David Spergel
Simons Foundation
Maria Zuber
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bridging the Gap Between Science and the Public Roundtables
In February, March, and April 2025, the Science, Engineering, and Technology program area hosted a series of five virtual roundtables on trust in science that convened educators, communicators, philanthropists, and experts in science. Participants discussed long-standing challenges and identified what lies at the heart of public trust. The conversations were candid and introspective, exploring ways scientists and communicators can improve their public engagement strategies and methods. The roundtables focused on five topics: misinformation, climate change, civic engagement, the scientific enterprise, and science and democracy. Each group discussed how the media, social networks, and political beliefs impact the public’s understanding of and trust in science.
Funders
Rita Allen Foundation
Doris Duke Foundation
Roundtable: Misinformation
February 6, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Laurie L. Patton, Moderator
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Maya Ajmera
Society for Science
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Trinity College
Lenore Blum
University of California, Berkeley
Nicholas Donofrio
NMD Consulting, LLC
Jennifer Hochschild
Harvard University
David Karpf
George Washington University
Walter E. Massey
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Laura Otis
Emory University
Jeannette Wing
Columbia University
Roundtable: Climate Change
March 10, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Cristián Samper, Moderator
Bezos Earth Fund
Bernard Harris
National Math + Science Initiative
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
University of Pennsylvania; Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands
David Kaslow
Food and Drug Administration
Anthony Leiserowitz
Yale University
Diana Liverman
University of Arizona
Richard Meserve
Covington and Burling LLP
Shelley Minteer
Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability; Missouri University of Science and Technology
Megan Ranney
Yale University
Anne Thompson
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Herbert Weiss
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (retired)
Roundtable: Civic Engagement
March 28, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Sean Decatur, Moderator
American Museum of Natural History
Paola Arlotta
Harvard University
Cynthia Beall
Case Western Reserve University
Judith Bronstein
University of Arizona
Johanna Drucker
University of California, Los Angeles
Juan Enriquez
Excel Venture Management
Sindy Escobar-Alvarez
Doris Duke Foundation
Adam Falk
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
University of California, Irvine
Sam Gill
Doris Duke Foundation
Paula Johnson
Wellesley College
Laurie L. Patton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sudip Parikh
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Marilyn Simons
Simons Foundation
Shirley Tilghman
Princeton University
Roundtable: The Scientific Enterprise
April 3, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Cristine Russell, Moderator
Harvard Kennedy School
Ken Alder
Northwestern University
Nancy C. Andrews
Boston Children’s Hospital
Deborah Blum
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roxane Cohen Silver
University of California, Irvine
Stefanie Friedhoff
Brown University School of Public Health
Fred Gage
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Stephen Mackwell
National Science Foundation
Shirley Malcom
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Gilbert Omenn
University of Michigan
Indira Raman
Northwestern University
Daniela Vasella
Novartis International AG
Yanqin Wu
University of Toronto
Roundtable: Science and Democracy
April 8, 2025
Virtual
Participants
Mark Trahant, Moderator
formerly, Indian Country Today
Megan Bang
Northwestern University
Louise Bryson
Public Media Group of Southern California
Elizabeth Christopherson
Rita Allen Foundation
France Córdova
Science Philanthropy Alliance
Stephanie Fryberg
Northwestern University
Ronald Linde
The Ronald and Maxine Linde Foundation
Stephen J. Macedo
Princeton University
Kelly Mack
American Association of Colleges and Universities
Laurie L. Patton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Prithi Trivedi
Packard Foundation