Organizers of 2015 “Innovation: An American Imperative” Issue Progress Report Detailing Path Congress & Administration Must Take to Ensure U.S. Remains Global Innovation Leader

The Academy's Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences has hosted a series of regional forums to collect testimony on the value of the humanities and social sciences.

As the Academy continues to look at issues related to public perceptions of risk, uncertainty, and scientific research through its Public Face of Science initiative, it partnered with the University of Chicago to organize a public symposium on “Communicating Scientific Facts in an Age of Uncertainty.” The symposium featured presentations by Olufunmilayo I. Olopade and Arthur Lupia.

Immigration is not only where the people come from, and why they come, and whether they are forced to come; it's also how and, in the long run, whether they are received.

Frances McCall Rosenbluth, one of the Academy’s most dedicated members, died in New Haven on November 20, 2021, at age 63. Rosenbluth, the Damon Wells Professor of Political Science at Yale University, had been dealing admirably with glioblastoma for the past year.

Over five decades, the Clean Air Act has become a venerable, living institution that has been highly successful in improving the environment around the country. Its success results from its durability and flexibility, two concepts that often seem to be in opposition yet may be essential to establishing successful climate and energy policy.

On October 1, 2011, the American Academy inducted its 231st class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members at a ceremony held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ceremony included presentations by five new members: Frances Hamilton Arnold, David Conrad Page, Sir Adam Roberts, Annette Gordon-Reed, and William I. Miller.

The report calls attention to the United States’ comparative decline in research investments over the past decade and offers recommendations for sustaining long-term thinking in science and technology policy, and for strengthening the partnership among government, universities, and industry.

While much of the discussion about the state of the humanities tends to focus on the declining number of students majoring in the humanities, the health of the field relies on a much wider array of practices. The American Academy’s Humanities Indicators project has been exploring this wider frame of humanities activity by compiling data from federal sources and conducting the first national survey about the health of the field.

The Academy is engaged in a number of projects, studies, and meetings that, when taken together, support the quality education and informed exchange that shape a healthy and inclusive democratic society. Just recently the Academy announced a Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship

On October 26, 2017, the American Academy hosted a conversation at the University of California, Berkeley, on "Priorities for Progress: Advancing Higher Education in America," which highlighted two Academy projects – The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education and the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education.

The visual image that most people have of the Dead Sea Scrolls is likely of one of the beautifully preserved manuscripts stored in stone jars, discovered in the hill caves of Jordan in the late 1940s. Unfortunately, only a handful of the scrolls were preserved in this way.

On October 11, 2025, the Academy inducted more than two hundred newly elected members during its annual Induction Ceremony. The program included brief remarks from five new members, each representing one of the Academy’s membership classes. Their talks addressed topics such as the transformative power of science, building trust in expertise in the age of biology, leading for breakthroughs, creating books that act as mirrors rather than windows, and the evolving impact of Title IX. The class speakers were Gregory H. Robinson (Class I: Mathematical and Physical Sciences), Ashish K. Jha (Class II: Biological Sciences), Brian Uzzi (Class III: Social and Behavioral Sciences), Jacqueline Woodson (Class IV: Humanities and Arts), and Christine Brennan (Class V: Leadership, Policy, and Communications). Edited versions of their remarks follow.

News about Academy events and projects, including the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Global Nuclear Future initiative, as well as new research and publications.

Francis Amory Prize Symposium: Advances in Reproductive Biology and Medicine

On September 30, 2023, the Academy inducted members elected in 2022 and 2023. The class speakers at the Induction Ceremony addressed major issues facing the world today. The ceremony featured presentations from computer scientist Maja Matarić, author and physician Abraham Verghese, economist Kerwin Charles, artistic director Oskar Eustis, and atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe. An edited version of their presentations follows.

On January 25, 2013,Thomas Levy described “cyber-archaeology” and the important role it plays in helping to promote excellence in the humanities and social sciences.

The conversation about climate change has evolved dramatically over the past three years. Since the Academy’s Board of Directors issued a public statement on climate change and the Academy’s Commission on Accelerating Climate Action began, public opinion and legislative measures have shifted toward more significant climate solutions.