The Academy’s Francis Amory Prize recognizes major contributions to the field of reproductive biology and was first awarded in 1940. Over the years, the prize recipients have reflected the increasing complexity and remarkable scientific progress in the field of reproductive biology.

Today the Academy’s Humanities Indicators launches its latest informational resource, the National Inventory of Humanities Organizations (NIHO).

Ellen T. Harris spoke at the Academy about Handel’s life and his inner circle of friends.

On October 7, 2017, the American Academy inducted its 237th class of Members at a ceremony held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ceremony included presentations by five new Members: Ursula Burns, James P. Allison, Heather K. Gerken, Jane Mayer, and Gerald Chan.

At the National Press Club, members of the Academy's language commission met for a public discussion of their answers. Commission member Rubén Rumbaut, offered the core of the commission’s framing, “Ironically, despite the diversity of American languages, the United States has acquired the dubious designation of being a language graveyard...we have immigrants and children of immigrants not passing on their language skills.”

In today’s high-tech and hyperconnected world, threats from insiders go far beyond leakers and lone-wolf shooters. How can we better protect against the enemy within, no matter what it is that needs to be protected?

Political scientists, historians, lawyers, policy-makers, anthropologists, and aca­demics as well as retired U.S. military personnel and a Washington, D.C., reserve police officer shared their expertise in militarization, civil-military relations, democratic erosion, gender and security issues, White supremacy movements, and budgeting and public finance to explore the relationships between long-term militarization, extremism, and democracy, both within the United States and abroad.

Experts in five locations—Berkeley, Cambridge, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.—to lead discussions about legal justice on November 11 as part of the Academy’s inaugural Distinguished Morton L. Mandel Annual Public Lecture.

The Spring 2015 issue of Dædalus on “Successful Aging of Societies” explores the opportunities and challenges facing the United States as it undergoes an unprecedented demographic transformation.

Academy projects in Science, Engineering, and Technology seek to strengthen the capacity of science and engineering to improve the human condition. 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. Likewise, rapid advances in information processing and transmission raise new issues for the management of scientific knowledge and for action on new discoveries.

Following an introduction from Robert C. Post, Linda K. Kerber discusses her work as part of a new generation of historians who have begun to study law as a cultural formation that both reflects and forms the discursive construction of collective identity in society.

From the Archives

The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship will work across disciplines to develop an understanding of how native born and newly arrived Americans engage with the institutions of their democracy, and how they exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.

We have entered a new nuclear era. The Cold War world dominated by only two nuclear superpowers no longer exists (even if Russia and the United States still possess the lion’s share of nuclear weapons); it has grown into a multipolar nuclear environment.

"Science During Crisis" coauthors Rita Colwell and Gary Machlis show how science plays a critical role in responding to crises, informing and guiding decisions governing disaster response and recovery.

In his keynote address, Academy President Jonathan Fanton emphasized the need for colleges and universities to do more to spread awareness about the positive impact of language and area studies.

On February 4, 2015, Andrea Roth and Franklin Zimring participated in a conversation at the University of California, Berkeley, on police use of lethal force against civilians.

Essays explore the history and future of the laws of war, as well as the challenges we face when trying to uphold and strengthen them.