Historian Bernard Bailyn opened the celebration of the 220th annual meeting of the Academy with a commentary on the personal characteristics of John Adams as revealed in his diary and his autobiography.

Deceased Members

The opening program of the 2023 Induction weekend included a reflection from actor and author John Lithgow, who encouraged the new members to engage with the Academy. He talked about his experience as a cochair of the Academy’s Commission on the Arts and shared a preview of his new television series on PBS—Art Happens Here—which grew out of the Academy’s work. The program also featured a conversation between David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, and Sheila Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Salamander Collection, that illuminated aspects of Johnson’s childhood, her success in a range of business ventures, and her lifelong involvement in the arts. An edited version of their conversation follows.

Major study by American Academy of Arts and Sciences seeks change in curriculum and assessment, commitment to funding public higher education, new ideas about the faculty role, and more.

Dysfunctional immigration policies implemented in recent decades have accelerated growth of the Latino population and racialized its members around the trope of illegality. Until 2016, the cultivation of White resentment relied on a dog-whistle politics of racially coded symbolic language, but with the election of Donald Trump, White nationalist sentiments became explicit.

Members Elected in 2021, by Class & Section

The American Academy has a long-standing interest in arms control and international security studies, dating back to the late 1950s with the formation of the US Committee on the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs and the establishment in 1982 of the Academy's Committee on International Security Studies.

Climate change, soil erosion, human rights, Indigenous peoples, and “fixing” our democracy — the class speakers at the 2019 Induction Ceremony addressed major issues facing the world today, with calls to action and calls for change. Following a reading from the letters of John and Abigail Adams by humanitarian Jane Olson and attorney Ronald Olson, newly elected members spoke passionately about their life’s work. The ceremony featured presentations from paleoclimatologists Ellen Mosley-Thompson and Lonnie G. Thompson; microbiologist Jo Handelsman; former United Nations diplomat Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein; historian Margaret Jacobs; and lawyer and advocate Sherrilyn Ifill. An edited version of their presentations follows.
2083rd Stated Meeting | October 12, 2019 | Cambridge, MA

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

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

The Academy’s Berkeley Committee hosted a panel discussion on generative AI (GenAI) that offered a technical overview of the technology and explored the legal and economic issues raised by the growing number of lawsuits challenging the legality of GenAI. The panel included Jennifer Chayes, Dean of the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society; Pamela Samuelson, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law; and Abhishek Nagaraj, economist and Associate Professor at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Goodwin Liu, Chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors, delivered welcome remarks. An edited transcript of the panelists’ presentations and discussion follows.

There is a surge of outbreaks in vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States. What research is needed to reverse this trend?

Members Elected in 2025, by Class & Section

Announcing the six universities awarded $250,000 as part of the inaugural Modernizing Academic Appointment & Advancement (MA3) Challenge. This new cohort of university awardees will implement bold institutional reforms to faculty hiring, evaluation, promotion, and tenure systems. 

The Winter 2022 issue of Daedalus, "Creating a New Moral Political Economy," explores what it would take to develop an economy that promotes more equal footing across the polity, marketplace, and workplace. Daedalus is an open access publication and all 11 essays and 22 responses are online.

Courts have long called upon experts making scientific claims to inform legal proceedings. As the range of scientific knowledge has expanded, so too have questions and challenges about the role and basis of claims of scientific expertise. For instance, how should courts respond when scientific experts do not agree?

American Academy of Arts and Sciences Sponsors International Conference to Examine Security, Safety, and Nonproliferation Issues

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

The Academy’s new strategic framework presents four animating principles and seven strategies that are designed to ensure that the Academy continues to produce high-quality, interdisciplinary work that addresses urgent societal challenges. In 2025, the Academy’s programmatic work laid the groundwork for new projects and initiatives that will implement this framework and built on ongoing efforts to increase impact and raise the visibility of the institution with external audiences. These audiences include policymakers at the federal, state, and local level; leaders in philanthropy, higher education, nonprofit organizations, and business; scholars and students; advocacy groups; professional groups and practitioners; and the public.

ARISE II Calls for Reorganization of the U.S. Scientific Enterprise