The nation’s public research universities serve approximately 3.8 million students each year and perform much of the country’s groundbreaking research.

On April 30, 2024, the Academy hosted a virtual event that featured four contributors to the Dædalus volume on “Understanding Implicit Bias: Insights & Innovations”—guest editors Goodwin Liu (California Supreme Court) and Camara Phyllis Jones (King’s College London) and authors Jennifer Eberhardt (Stanford University) and Frank Dobbin (Harvard University)—who discussed some of the strategies and solutions to understand and combat implicit bias. The program included welcoming remarks from Academy President David W. Oxtoby. An edited transcript of the event follows.

To celebrate the arts, artists, and the work of the Academy’s Commission on the Arts, Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” talked with Commission Cochairs John Lithgow, Deborah Rutter, and Natasha Trethewey. The program included poetry, music, and a discussion of the recommendations developed by the Commission to elevate the arts, support artists, and promote arts education in America. The event also introduced Mixtape, an online collection of arts experiences that features members of the Commission and members of the Academy.

Although global child mortality has dropped by 50 percent since 1990, neonatal mortality has declined much more slowly. Newborns now represent more than 40 percent of under-five deaths, and preterm birth is the world’s leading killer of children.

The American Academy inducted its 236th class of members at a ceremony that included presentations by five new members: Terry A. Plank, Jay D Keasling, Andrea Louise Campbell, Theaster Gates, Jr., and Walter Isaacson.

Mental health in America is a looming crisis, silently corroding the fabric of society. Despite increased awareness, the statistics paint a sobering picture: one in five adults grapple with mental illness annually, yet access to adequate care remains challenging, especially in rural areas. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies can significantly transform mental health care by providing tailored interventions, early detection tools, and convenient therapy options if concerns about access, ethics, and equity are addressed.

By Kathryn Moffat, Senior Program Officer for Global Security and International Affairs at the Academy

Public-private partnerships, new sources of revenue among recommendations for strategic directions

Institutions are critical to our personal and societal well-being. They facilitate relationships; they regulate behavior. They develop and disseminate knowledge, enforce the law, keep us healthy, and uphold social and religious norms.

A new report sets forth concerns about America's inadequate investment in R&D for science and engineering as China advances. The report makes recommendations that could help ensure the United States secures its strong position of global leadership in discovery and innovation.

Three leaders of cultural, civic and higher education institutions are being recognized for their contributions to Chicago and the nation by the 225-year-old American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On Saturday, November 19, as part of a program on Shapers of the New Chicago, the three leaders – John Bryan, Richard Franke and Don Michael Randel – are to receive special Founders Awards from the Academy.

Three forces will fundamentally shape America’s energy future: climate change, national security, and global competition. A more effective national energy policy could better respond to these challenges by encouraging the adoption of new technologies and more realistic pricing models, according to contributors to the Spring 2012 issue of Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy.

Academy Convenes Educators, Donors, and Evaluation Specialists

Building consensus across the higher education sector was the focus of the Academy’s annual convening of The Higher Education Forum in June 2024. The convening was an opportunity for leaders to discuss how to emerge from a year marked by new challenges, while colleges and universities were recovering from the impact of the pandemic.

A dinner discussion on DNA and Art: In Search of the Genome of Leonardo da Vinci, featuring Jesse H. Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University and introductory remarks from Kenneth Wallach (Central National Gottesman Inc.) who cochairs the New York Program Committee.

​​​​​​​The Rumford Prize – a storied science award presented by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences – has been given to astrophysicist and experimental cosmologist Charles L. Bennett.

The Spring 2010 issue of Dædalus explores the impact of new technologies and evolving patterns of news consumption on American media. Sixteen authors join guest editor Loren Ghiglione, a veteran of almost four decades in journalism and the Richard A. Schwarzlose Professor of Media Ethics at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, in an in-depth look at the revolution occurring in the news media and the future of investigative journalism.

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.

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