Howard Mumford Jones was president of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences from 1944 to 1951. He was instrumental in transforming the Academy into a national organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary analysis of broad-scale intellectual issues.

On May 18, 1921, a Special Meeting was held at the House of the Academy at 28 Newbury Street in honor of Professor Albert Einstein of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, during his first visit to the United States...

Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen discusses the importance of democracy, following an introduction from Thomas Scanlon.

PBS and the Academy are partnering for a PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT storytelling project to develop a crowdsourced poem curated by Academy member and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey.

The Academy, in partnership with the Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA) and the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program, launched the Modernizing Academic Appointment and Advancement (MA3) Challenge. The initiative invites U.S. colleges and universities to transform academic hiring, review, promotion, and tenure practices.

Recent Member Events

For a full and up-to-date listing of upcoming events, please visit amacad.org/events.

National Commission seeks recommendations from leaders in foreign policy, national defense, international diplomacy in preparation for report to Congress.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences hosted a distinguished group of judges, attorneys, human rights specialists, and academics to discuss whether an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) would contribute to global peace and security and, if so, how it might be established.

New Issue of Journal Dædalus Explores the Global Nuclear Future

Essays in the Fall 2009 issue of Dædalus on the global nuclear future examine the interconnected issues of a potential worldwide expansion of civilian nuclear power, attendant risks of weapons proliferation and nuclear terrorism, and the prospects for lessening the impact of climate change through growth in nuclear energy.

Joseph Kannarkat and Norm Augustine, cochair of Academy project on New Models for U.S. Science and Technology Policy, discuss the project’s final report and what the U.S. can learn from China to improve its competitiveness in technology development.

The Academy (founded in 1780) is looking ahead to its 250th anniversary as an opportunity for researching, writing, reflecting, and reckoning. There are two new initiatives: a book by distinguished historian Jacqueline Jones and a section of the website providing an overview of members, milestones, and work.

The place of the military in the public consciousness has changed dramatically over time. In a Gallup poll from 2011 that measured the public’s confidence in sixteen major institutions, the military ranked higher than any other institution, with 78 percent of respondents stating their respect for and confidence in the armed forces. On December 7, 2011 – the seventieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor – the Academy convened a panel of scholars at Stanford University to discuss the military and international relations.