From the Archives

A Forbes article about "The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits" - a publication issued by the Academy's bipartisan working group - cites U.S. Circuit Judge Diane Wood and Professor Charles Fried who are members of the working group and the Academy.

The Academy conducted a day of special briefings for Congressional staff in January 2023 on issues related to nuclear arms control. The day including a large briefing -- "The Doomsday Clock and Today’s Nuclear Landscape” -- as well as individual office visits. The conversations were part of the Academy's “Promoting Dialogue on Arms Control and Disarmament” project.

Working with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Academy convened college and university presidents and leaders of scholarly societies. Together, they developed and supported a unified defense of learning and higher education. More than 650 leaders signed the statement on behalf of their students, faculty, staff, and communities.

Where does creativity come from? That is the question that animated a December 2025 concert lecture delivered by clinical psychiatrist Richard Kogan (Weill Cornell Medical College) at the House of the Academy in Cambridge.

Working with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Academy convened college and university presidents and leaders of scholarly societies. Together, they developed and supported a unified defense of learning and higher education. More than 650 leaders signed the statement on behalf of their students, faculty, staff, and communities.

Paul Wise will cochair the latest Academy project on “Rethinking the Humanitarian Health Response to Violent Conflict,” designed to help define new strategies for the provision of essential health services in areas of violent conflict.

In December, Commission on Accelerating Climate Action co-chair Chris Field and the Academy's John E. Bryson Program Director for Science, Engineering, and Technology Leo Curran presented the Commission’s final report, Forging Climate Solutions: How to Accelerate Action Across America, to the annual American Geophysical Union conference.

A recent report from the Brookings Institution uses the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' recent climate report as an example of inclusive climate messaging strategies that reach across political divides and build grassroots support.

The Academy is launching the Our Common Purpose Communities Project - a national coalition of municipalities committed to strengthening American democracy. Lexington, Kentucky is the first city in the nation to join this effort and identify two recommendations from the Our Common Purpose report to advance at the local level.

Academy Member Jacqueline Jones, who is currently writing a book on the history of the Academy, was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

In March 1945, Mrs. Laura M. Agassiz sent the Academy three portraits of members of the Agassiz family: her late husband, Maximilian (1866–1941); his father, Alexander (1835–1910; elected to the Academy in 1862); and his grandfather, Louis (1807–1873; elected a Foreign Honorary Member in 1846). Both elder Agassizes were active members of the Academy; Alexander served as president from 1894–1903. The Academy accessioned the portraits into its collections and put them on display in the Newbury Street headquarters, which the Agassiz family helped to build.

The American Academy’s Board of Directors issued a statement about climate change to stand explicitly with the scientific community and others to recognize the urgent need for a long-term commitment by every segment of our society to address this global issue.

High school students continue to engage with the humanities (English, languages, and history) at a high rate, albeit with evidence of some troubling racial disparities, according to new findings from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Humanities Indicators.

Citing the Academy report “Art for Life’s Sake: The Case for Arts Education,” Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), David Price (D-NC), and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) led 15 Members of the House in calling on President Biden to restore the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities via Executive Order.

The conference on local initiatives strengthening democracy convened mayors, city councilors, county executives, and other local government officials - along with scholars and experts – to engage on topics including ranked choice voting in local elections, civic learning and engagement, clean elections programs, mechanisms to expand citizen participation, investment in healthy civic infrastructure, and more.

Academy Staff

The overarching recommendation of the Academy's report on America's Languages was to establish “a national strategy to improve access to as many languages as possible for people of every region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background—to value language education as a persistent national need.”

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has named Victor Seow the recipient of its Sarton Prize for the History of Science, recognizing his exceptional promise and distinguished achievements as an emerging scholar in the field.

The Academy and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine cohosted a webinar focused on environmental justice and its central role in two recently released reports: the Academy’s Forging Climate Solutions: How to Accelerate Action Across America and the National Academies’ Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions.