William H. Gates, Sr., Frank Thomson Leighton, Carolyn R. Bertozzi, and Michael Wood Speak at Induction Ceremony Sherrill Milnes Performs

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

A new report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences highlights the national civil justice gap by examining the causes of the problem and recommending innovative ways to address it.

Danielle Allen responds to new national test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) which revealed a further decline in students’ knowledge in U.S. history and civics.

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.

Creating a “new normal” of multiliteracy and multiculturalism is key to the future of the United States as a leader on the world stage.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir made history in October 2019 when she participated in the first all-female spacewalk. After 205 days in the isolation of space, she returned to a planet experiencing its own form of isolation: the global COVID-19 pandemic. As an astronaut and a marine biologist, Dr. Meir’s research into the impact of extreme environments has brought her to the depths of the Antarctic and the heights of space. At a virtual program, hosted by the Academy’s San Diego Program Committee, Dr. Meir described her research and her experiences in space and participated in a conversation with Brian Keating (University of California San Diego) about the perspectives that her work provides about our world.

Meeting hosted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in partnership with Nuclear Law Association and TERI University

Two-day workshop seeks to increase participation in clean energy programs and set priorities for energy policy programs

A Law360 article about the publication "The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits" issued by the Academy's bipartisan working group quotes Professor Akhil Reed Amar and Professor Charles Fried who are members of the working group and the Academy.

From the Archives

Those of us who teach undergraduates are familiar with the trend revealed in these data. Baccalaureate graduates typically have earned more course credits in the humanities (about 17% as defined here) than in STEM fields (about 13%). STEM majors earn fewer credits in the humanities than do students majoring in other areas; and students majoring in the humanities, business, social sciences, and education apparently earn no more than a required minimum of their credits in STEM courses.

The report, Forging Climate Solutions: How to Accelerate Action Across America, was developed over a two-year period by a diverse commission of leaders sharing their expertise and priorities. Their report recommends how corporations, frontline communities, government, and environmental groups can work together to mobilize investments, build infrastructure, reduce emissions, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.

A statement from Academy President David Oxtoby on the passing of Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. who was an Academy member of vision and generosity.

In August 2020, the Public Face of Science initiative published its final report, The Public Face of Science in America: Priorities for the Future, which outlines recommendations for strengthening the relationship between science and society. The first two reports released by the project, Perceptions of Science in America (2018) and Encountering Science in America (2019), show the heterogeneity of current attitudes toward science and the great breadth of experiences that can influence those attitudes. The final report takes a multifaceted approach and identifies three high-level areas for change that can, over the long term, shape attitudes toward science and people’s experiences with it.

An event at the Academy explored and expanded upon essays in the new volume, The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the Nuclear Age. Authors, other experts, and audience members in Cambridge and online considered how unpredictable leadership, domestic unrest, volatile states, and rapid technological advancements are changing the new nuclear era.