AAAS logo
| |
| Founded | September 20, 1848 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Science education and outreach |
| Location | |
Members
| more than 120,000 |
| Website | AAAS.org |
Formerly called
| Association of American Geologists and Naturalists |
Washington, D.C. office of the AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. It is the world's largest general scientific society, with over 120,000 members, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science, which had a weekly circulation of 138,549 in 2008.
History
Creation
The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created on September 20, 1848, at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a reformation of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. The society chose William Charles Redfield as their first president
because he had proposed the most comprehensive plans for the
organization. According to the first constitution which was agreed to at
the September 20 meeting, the goal of the society was to promote
scientific dialogue in order to allow for greater scientific
collaboration.
By doing so the association aimed to use resources to conduct science
with increased efficiency and allow for scientific progress at a greater
rate.
The association also sought to increase the resources available to the
scientific community through active advocacy of science. There were
only 78 members when the AAAS was formed. As a member of the new scientific body, Matthew Fontaine Maury, USN was one of those who attended the first 1848 meeting.
At a meeting held on Friday afternoon, September 22, 1848, Redfield presided, and Matthew Fontaine Maury gave a full scientific report on his Wind and Current Charts. Maury stated that hundreds of ship navigators were now sending abstract logs of their voyages to the United States Naval Observatory. He added, "Never before was such a corps of observers known."
But, he pointed out to his fellow scientists, his critical need was for
more "simultaneous observations." "The work," Maury stated, "is not
exclusively for the benefit of any nation or age." The minutes of the
AAAS meeting reveal that because of the universality of this "view on
the subject, it was suggested whether the states of Christendom might
not be induced to cooperate with their Navies in the undertaking; at
least so far as to cause abstracts of their log-books and sea journals
to be furnished to Matthew F. Maury, USN, at the Naval Observatory at Washington."
William Barton Rogers, professor at the University of Virginia
and later founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered
a resolution: "Resolved that a Committee of five be appointed to
address a memorial to the Secretary of the Navy, requesting his further
aid in procuring for Matthew Maury the use of the observations of
European and other foreign navigators, for the extension and perfecting
of his charts of winds and currents." The resolution was adopted and, in
addition to Rogers, the following members of the association were
appointed to the committee: Professor Joseph Henry of Washington;
Professor Benjamin Peirce of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Professor James
H. Coffin of Easton, Pennsylvania, and Professor Stephen Alexander of
Princeton, New Jersey. This was scientific cooperation, and Maury went back to Washington with great hopes for the future.
Growth and Civil War dormancy
By 1860, membership increased to over 2,000. The AAAS became dormant during the American Civil War; their August 1861 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, was postponed indefinitely after the outbreak of the first major engagement of the war at Bull Run. The AAAS did not become a permanent casualty of the war.
In 1866, Frederick Barnard presided over the first meeting of the resurrected AAAS at a meeting in New York City.
Following the revival of the AAAS, the group had considerable growth.
The AAAS permitted all people, regardless of scientific credentials, to
join. The AAAS did, however, institute a policy of granting the title of
"Fellow of the AAAS"
to well-respected scientists within the organization. The years of
peace brought the development and expansion of other scientific-oriented
groups. The AAAS's focus on the unification of many fields of science
under a single organization was in contrast to the many new science
organizations founded to promote a single discipline. For example, the American Chemical Society, founded in 1876, promotes chemistry.
In 1863, the US Congress established the National Academy of Sciences,
another multidisciplinary sciences organization. It elects members
based on recommendations from colleagues and the value of published
works.
Advocacy
Alan I. Leshner,
AAAS CEO from 2001 until 2015, published many op-ed articles discussing
how many people integrate science and religion in their lives. He has
opposed the insertion of non-scientific content, such as creationism or intelligent design, into the scientific curriculum of schools.
In December 2006, the AAAS adopted an official statement on climate change,
in which they stated, "The scientific evidence is clear: global climate
change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing
threat to society....The pace of change and the evidence of harm have
increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is now."
In February 2007, the AAAS used satellite images to document human rights abuses in Burma.
The next year, AAAS launched the Center for Science Diplomacy to
advance both science and the broader relationships among partner
countries, by promoting science diplomacy and international scientific cooperation.
In 2012, AAAS published op-eds,
held events on Capitol Hill and released analyses of the U.S. federal
research-and-development budget, to warn that a budget sequestration
would have severe consequences for scientific progress.
Sciences
AAAS covers various areas
of sciences and engineering. It has twelve sections, each with a
committee and its chair. These committees are also entrusted with the
annual evaluation and selection of Fellows. The sections are:
- Astronomy
- Engineering
- Anthropology
- Education
- Medical Sciences
- Biological Sciences
- Industrial Science and Technology
- Geology and Geography
- History and Philosophy of Science
- Agriculture, Food & Renewable Resources
- Linguistics and Language Sciences
- General Interest in Science and Engineering
Governance
The most recent Constitution of the AAAS, enacted on January 1, 1973,
establishes that the governance of the AAAS is accomplished through
four entities: a President, a group of administrative officers, a
Council, and a Board of Directors.
Presidents
Individuals elected to the presidency of the AAAS hold a three-year term in a unique way. The first year is spent as President-elect, the second as President and the third as Chairperson of the Board of Directors. In accordance with the convention followed by the AAAS, presidents are referenced by the year in which they left office.
Geraldine Richmond is the President of AAAS for 2015–16; Phillip Sharp is the Board Chair; and Barbara A. Schaal is the President-Elect. Each took office on the last day of the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting in February 2015. On the last day of the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, February 15, 2016, Richmond will become the Chair, Schaal will become the President, and a new President-Elect will take office.
Past presidents of AAAS have included some of the most important
scientific figures of their time. Among them: explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell (1888); astronomer and physicist Edward Charles Pickering (1912); anthropologist Margaret Mead (1975); and biologist Stephen Jay Gould (2000).
Notable Presidents of the AAAS, 1848–2005
- 1849: Joseph Henry
- 1871: Asa Gray
- 1877: Simon Newcomb
- 1880: Joseph Lovering
- 1882: J. William Dawson
- 1886: Edward S. Morse
- 1887: Samuel P. Langley
- 1888: John Wesley Powell
- 1927: Arthur Amos Noyes
- 1929: Robert A. Millikan
- 1931: Franz Boas
- 1934: Edward L. Thorndike
- 1942: Arthur H. Compton
- 1947: Harlow Shapley
- 1951: Kirtley F. Mather
- 1972: Glenn T. Seaborg
- 1975: Margaret Mead
- 1992: Leon M. Lederman
- 2000: Stephen Jay Gould
Administrative officers
There
are three classifications of high-level administrative officials that
execute the basic, daily functions of the AAAS. These are the executive officer, the treasurer and then each of the AAAS's section secretaries. The current CEO of AAAS and executive publisher of Science magazine is Rush D. Holt.
Sections of the AAAS
The AAAS has 24 "sections" with each section being responsible for a particular concern of the AAAS. There are sections for agriculture, anthropology, astronomy, atmospheric science, biological science, chemistry, dentistry, education, engineering, general interest in science and engineering, geology and geography, the history and philosophy of science, technology, computer science, linguistics, mathematics, medical science, neuroscience, pharmaceutical science, physics, psychology, science and human rights, social and political science, the social impact of science and engineering, and statistics.
Affiliates
AAAS affiliates include 262 societies and academies of science, serving more than 10 million members, from the Acoustical Society of America to the Wildlife Society, as well as non-mainstream groups like the Parapsychological Association.
The Council
The
Council is composed of the members of the Board of Directors, the
retiring section chairmen, elected delegates and affiliated foreign
council members. Among the elected delegates there are always at least
two members from the National Academy of Sciences
and one from each region of the country. The President of the AAAS
serves as the Chairperson of the Council. Members serve the Council for a
term of three years.
The council meets annually to discuss matters of importance to
the AAAS. They have the power to review all activities of the
Association, elect new fellows, adopt resolutions, propose amendments to
the Association's constitution and bylaws, create new scientific
sections, and organize and aid local chapters of the AAAS. The Council
recently has new additions to it from different sections which include
many youngsters as well. John Kerry of Chicago is the youngest American
in the council and Akhil Ennamsetty of India is the youngest foreign
council member.
Board of directors
The
board of directors is composed of a chairperson, the president, and the
president-elect along with eight elected directors, the executive
officer of the association and up to two additional directors appointed
by elected officers. Members serve a four-year term except for directors
appointed by elected officers, who serve three-year terms.
The current chairman is Gerald Fink,
Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor at Whitehead Institute, MIT. Fink
will serve in the post until the end of the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, 15 February 2016. (The chairperson is always the immediate past-president of AAAS.)
The board of directors has a variety of powers and
responsibilities. It is charged with the administration of all
association funds, publication of a budget, appointment of
administrators, proposition of amendments, and determining the time and
place of meetings of the national association. The board may also speak
publicly on behalf of the association. The board must also regularly
correspond with the council to discuss their actions.
AAAS Fellows
The AAAS council elects every year, its members who are distinguished scientifically, to the grade of fellow (FAAAS).
Election to AAAS is an honor bestowed by their peers and elected
fellows are presented with a certificate and rosette pin. To limit the
effects and tolerance of sexual harassment in the sciences, starting 15
October 2018, a Fellow's status can be revoked "in cases of proven
scientific misconduct, serious breaches of professional ethics, or when
the Fellow in the view of the AAAS otherwise no longer merits the status
of Fellow."
Meetings
Formal
meetings of the AAAS are numbered consecutively, starting with the
first meeting in 1848. Meetings were not held 1861–1865 during the American Civil War, and also 1942–1943 during World War II. Since 1946, one meeting has occurred annually, now customarily in February.
Awards and fellowships
Each year, the AAAS gives out a number of honorary awards, most of which focus on science communication,
journalism, and outreach – sometimes in partnership with other
organizations. The awards recognize "scientists, journalists, and public
servants for significant contributions to science and to the public’s
understanding of science.” The awards are presented each year at the association's annual meeting.
The AAAS also offers a number of fellowship programs.
Currently active awards include
- Award for Science and Diplomacy
- Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science
- The Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Children's Science News
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Magazine
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Newspapers (< 100,000 daily circulation)
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Newspapers (> 100,000 daily circulation)
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Online
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Radio
- Kavli Science Journalism Awards – Television
- Leadership in Science Education Prize for High School Teachers
- Mentor Award
- Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement
- Newcomb Cleveland Prize
- Philip Hauge Abelson Prize
- Public Engagement with Science Award
- Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award
- John McGovern Lecture
- William D. Carey Lecture
Publications
The society's flagship publication is Science, a weekly interdisciplinary scientific journal. Other peer-reviewed journals published by the AAAS are Science Signaling, Science Translational Medicine, Science Immunology, Science Robotics and the interdisciplinary Science Advances. They also publish the non-peer-reviewed Science & Diplomacy.
EurekAlert!
In 1996, AAAS launched the EurekAlert! website, an editorially independent, non-profit news release distribution service covering all areas of science, medicine and technology. Eurekalert! provides news in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese. In 2007, EurekAlert! Chinese was launched.
Working staff journalists and freelancers who meet eligibility
guidelines can access the latest studies before publication and obtain
embargoed information in compliance with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission's Regulation Fair Disclosure policy.
By early 2018, more than 14,000 reporters from more than 90 countries
have registered for free access to embargoed materials. More than 5,000
active public information officers from 2,300 universities, academic
journals, government agencies, and medical centers are credentialed to
provide new releases to reporters and the public through the system.
In 1998, European science organizations countered Eurekalert! with a press release distribution service AlphaGalileo.
Eurekalert! has fallen under criticism for lack of press release standards and for generating churnalism.
