New York Academy of Sciences office (lobby) on the 40th floor at 7 World Trade Center.
The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a prestigious nonprofit professional society that plays a vital role in advancing global scientific research and knowledge. As the fourth-oldest scientific society in the United States, the academy has made significant contributions to the scientific community for over two centuries. Today, it boasts a diverse membership of over 20,000 individuals from 100 countries.
NYAS is dedicated to promoting scientific literacy, supporting innovative research, and fostering science-based solutions to pressing global challenges. The academy hosts a wide array of programs and publishes cutting-edge scientific content across various disciplines, including life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences. Additionally, the academy addresses critical cross-disciplinary topics such as nutrition, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and sustainability. Through these initiatives, the NYAS facilitates the exchange of scientific information among its members, the broader scientific community, the media, and the public.
A key focus of the academy is to provide resources and support to researchers at every stage of their careers, from emerging scientists to seasoned professionals. In 2020, Nicholas Dirks was appointed as the president and CEO of the academy, bringing his extensive experience in academia and leadership to the organization. Jerry Hultin, the chair and co-founder of Global Futures Group, LLC, currently serves as the chair of the board of governors, guiding the academy's mission and strategic direction.
Through its longstanding history and ongoing efforts, the New York Academy of Sciences continues to be a beacon of scientific excellence, promoting innovation and collaboration across the global scientific community.
History
Founded on January 29, 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences was originally called the Lyceum of Natural History.[1] Attended by the academy's founder and first president, Samuel L. Mitchill, the first meeting of the Lyceum took place at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, located on Barclay Street near Broadway in lower Manhattan.[1] Within a few months of the first meeting, the Lyceum moved to the New York Institution (located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Chambers Street) and began its first activities—hosting lectures, collecting natural history specimens, and establishing a library.[1] In 1823, the Lyceum began publishing its own scientific journal, Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, which, in 1876, was renamed Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. By 1826 the Lyceum owned "the richest collection of reptiles and fish in the country." A fire in 1866 destroyed the collection.[3] Following the fire, the academy turned its focus away from collecting and natural history to the ever-specializing domains of scientific research and inquiry, community outreach, and involvement in the scientific endeavors of the main scientific organizations in New York City. This included the dissemination of scientific information at all levels—from a curious public to specialized science societies, colleges, and universities.
From the outset, the New York Academy of Sciences' membership was unusual among scientific societies in the 19th century because its democratic structure allowed all to join, from laypeople to professional scientists, clinicians, and engineers.[3] For that reason, the membership has always included a mix of scientists, business people, academics, government workers, and members of the general public. Prominent members have included United States Presidents (Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe), as well as many notable scientists and scholars, including Asa Gray (who served as the superintendent of the academy starting in 1836), John James Audubon, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, Nikola Tesla, Margaret Mead (who served for a time as the vice president of the academy), Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Jennifer Doudna.[1][3] Prior to 1877, the academy only admitted men, but on November 5, 1877, it elected Erminnie A. Smith the first female member.[4] Members, Honorary Members, Corresponding Members, and Fellows have included many renowned scientists—including dozens of Nobel Prize laureates over the years.[5][1]
The academy's programs and publications have contributed significantly to scientific discussions and progress over its history, including: in 1876, publishing one of the first studies on environmental pollution;[6] conducting the first-of-its-kind scientific survey and publication The Scientific Survey of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, from 1907 to 1934;[1] holding the first conference and publication of key papers on antibiotics in 1945–46;[1] hosting a conference and publishing key papers on the cardiovascular effects of smoking in 1960[7] and on the effects of asbestos on human health in 1964–65; founding the Women in Science Committee in 1977;[1] convening the world's first major scientific conference on AIDS in 1983–1984;[8] and an early conference on SARS in 2003.[9]
More recent activities have included: annual meetings on machine learning; programs designed to reduce time and costs of Alzheimer's research; programs on the development of the brain from before birth through early childhood; convening the inaugural Summit on Science Enablement for the (United Nations) Sustainable Development Goals in 2017; and convening climate scientists and city planners, industry experts, policymakers, and representatives of NGOs for a conference marking the 10-year anniversary of a partnership between the New York City Panel on Climate Change, the City of New York, and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. The journal published three volumes (in 2010, 2015, and 2019) of scientific studies on climate change in NYC.[10]
Like most scientific organizations in early 2020, the academy turned resources to programming related to the COVID-19 pandemic, producing over 35 programs on the science of SARS-CoV-2, developments in vaccines and therapies, and lessons on how to prepare for future outbreaks.[10]
The Academy moved to a new facility on the 8th floor of the United States Realty Building (115 Broadway) in May 2023.[11] The new facility is roughly six blocks south of the Academy's original home near Barclay and Broadway.
Publications
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (first published as Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History in 1823) is one of the oldest continuously published scientific journals in the United States.[12]Annals is an international science journal published monthly in many areas of science, though predominantly the biological sciences. Each issue presents original research articles and/or commissioned review, commentary, and perspective articles. Annals is a hybrid journal—i.e., it is available by subscription from John Wiley & Sons and over 30% of individual papers are freely available via Creative Commons licenses. The journal is rigorously peer-reviewed, and is currently ranked 2020 13 out of 73 journals in the Multidisciplinary Sciences category by the 2020 Journal Citation Reports™ (Clarivate Analytics).
Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences is an historical publication of the academy. Published as two series (Series 1, volumes 1–16, 1881–1897, and Series 2, volumes 1–41, 1938–1983), Transactions presents scholarly and scientific proceedings of the various Academy scientific “Sections” (e.g., Section of Anthropology, Biology, Physics and Chemistry, Oceanography and Meteorology, Mathematics and Engineering, Geology and Mineralogy, and several others) and of other scientific events and proceedings at the academy. A sister journal to Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is Transactions, which provides a window on Academy scientific proceedings that cannot be found elsewhere, and thus is a rich history of science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Sciences was a popular science magazine published by the academy from 1961 to 2001.[13] It bridged the sciences and culture, winning seven National Magazine Awards.[14]
Over the past 15 years, these seminal publications, as well as the academy's archive, were digitized.
Programs
Frontiers of Science
The New York Academy of Sciences produces domestic and international conferences, convened in-person and virtually, that cover cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary topics including genomic medicine, chemical and structural biology, drug discovery, computer science, and urban sustainability. The academy's Frontiers of Science programs provide a neutral forum for participants to exchange information on basic and applied research and to discuss the broader role of science, medicine, and technology in society. In addition to programming related to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent conferences have also explored conflicts of interest in the health sciences and medicine, racial bias in science and academia, science denialism, issues in bioethics and law in space travel, and profiles of women in the top echelons of science.[15][10]
The Global STEM Alliance and the Junior Academy
The Global STEM Alliance equips thousands of students each year with skills and provides role models to support them on educational paths toward STEM careers. The Alliance offers challenge competitions, supports teachers with professional development, and trains STEM professionals to serve as mentors. The Junior Academy is a community under the New York Academy of the Sciences that aims to connect students ages 13 to 17. Each year, 1,000 students from around the world are selected to be a part of the program and compete in 10-week long challenges.[16]
The Science Alliance
The Science Alliance supports early-career researchers, providing entrepreneurial opportunities, platforms for cross-cultural personal and professional networking, and learning resources.[17]
Nutrition Program
The New York Academy of Sciences’ Nutrition Science Program supports maternal and child nutrition, and provides leadership in food safety, food security, and the drive to end micronutrient deficiencies.[18]
International Science Reserve
The International Science Reserve (ISR) includes members who provide resources (e.g., genomic sequencing, specialized talent, labs, databases, high performance computing), advice, and support. It is governed by a board of leaders in industry, government, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Partners include IBM, Google, and UL.[19]
The Interstellar Initiative
The Interstellar Initiative, a program developed with the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, fosters international and interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists early in their careers. With the guidance of leading senior researchers, teams develop research plans and grant proposals centered in the life sciences. Since 2017, the Interstellar Initiative has supported over 170 early-career scientists and 41 senior scientists as mentors.[20][21]
Awards
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists were established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The awards, administered by the academy, are given each year, to early-career scientists in the New York region (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), across the U.S., in the U.K., and in Israel. By the close of 2022, the Blavatnik Awards will have recognized more than 370 young scientists and engineers from 47 countries, and awarded unrestricted cash prizes totaling US$13.6M.[22]
Established in 2016, the Innovators in Science Award, administered by the academy and sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, honors both a promising early-career scientist and an outstanding senior scientist for exceptional research contributions in rotating fields of biomedicine. The winners each receive a US$200,000 prize, intended to support their commitment to innovative research.[23]
Frederick Seitz was an American physicist, tobacco industry lobbyist, and climate change denier. Seitz was the 4th president of Rockefeller University from 1968 to 1978, and the 17th president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1962 to 1969. Seitz was the recipient of the National Medal of Science, NASA's Distinguished Public Service Award, and other honors.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds courses, workshops and conferences, publishes five scientific journals and supports individual scientists. The organization was founded in 1964 and is a founding member of the Initiative for Science in Europe. As of 2022 the Director of EMBO is Fiona Watt, a stem cell researcher, professor at King's College London and a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.
Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik is a Soviet/Ukrainian-born British-American businessman and philanthropist. As of January 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at $31.3 billion. In 2017, Blavatnik received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) is an international, non-profit scientific society of professionals engaged in food science, food technology, and related areas in academia, government and industry. It has more than 17,000 members from more than 95 countries.
The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is a global nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Washington, DC, United States that publishes peer-reviewed studies on nutrition and food safety. It was founded in 1978 by Alex Malaspina, a former Coca-Cola executive, and it is partially financed by its 300+ members, which includes food and chemical corporations such as BASF, McDonald's, Syngenta and Pepsi. In 2020, the organization's revenue was US$10.1 million.
Rebecca Oppenheimer is an American astrophysicist and one of four curator/professors in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Oppenheimer is a comparative exoplanetary scientist. She investigates planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. Her optics laboratory is the birthplace of a number of new astronomical instruments designed to tackle the problem of directly seeing and taking spectra of nearby solar systems with exoplanets and studying their composition, with the ultimate goal of finding life outside the solar system.
The Society for Developmental Biology (SDB), originally the Society for the Study of Development and Growth, is an organization for scientists and professionals around the world whose research is focused on the study of the developmental biology, embryology, and related disciplines.
The University of Hohenheim is a campus university located in the south of Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 1818, it is Stuttgart's oldest university. Its primary areas of specialisation had traditionally been agricultural and natural sciences. Today, however, the majority of its students are enrolled in one of the many study programs offered by the faculty of business, economics and social sciences. The faculty has regularly been ranked among the best in the country, making the University of Hohenheim one of Germany's top-tier universities in these fields. The university maintains academic alliances with a number of partner universities and is involved in numerous joint research projects.
David Bradley Allison is an American obesity researcher, biostatistician, and psychologist. He is the dean of the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington and, in 2007, was one of the top 10 scientists in the world awarded the most NIH grants. Allison was previously Distinguished Professor, Quetelet Endowed Professor, and Director of the NIH-funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Rachel Wilson is an American professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Wilson's work integrates electrophysiology, calcium imaging, molecular genetics, connectomics, computational modeling, and behavior to explore how neural circuits are organized to sense complex environments, learn associations between environmental features, and organize adaptive behavioral responses.
Science diplomacy describes how scientific exchanges and the cross-border collaboration of scientists or scientific organizations can perform diplomatic functions in the context of international relations. Most often this diplomacy happens as part of scientific cooperation as a means of building relationships between states and within international organizations. Science diplomacy is a process by which states, international organizations and non-state actors represent themselves and their interests. It is a global phenomenon.
Rajeev Kumar Varshney is an Indian agricultural scientist, specializing in genomics, genetics, molecular breeding and capacity building in developing countries. Varshney is currently serving as Director, Western Australian State Agricultural Biotechnology Center; Director, Centre for Crop & Food Innovation; and International Chair in Agriculture & Food Security with the Food Futures Institute at Murdoch University, Australia since Feb 2022. Before joining Murdoch University, Australia he served International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a global agriculture R&D institute, for more than 16 years in different scientific and research leadership roles including Research Program Director for three global research programs– Grain Legumes, Genetic Gains and Accelerated Crop Improvement Program. He has the onus of establishing and nurturing the Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology (CEGSB), a globally recognized center for genomics research at ICRISAT that made impacts on improving agriculture and development of human resources in several countries including India, China, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, etc. Varshney holds Adjunct/Honorary/Visiting Professor positions at 10 academic institutions in Australia, China, Ghana, Hong Kong and India, including The University of Western Australia, University of Queensland, West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, University of Hyderabad, Chaudhary Charan Singh University and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University.
Tan Sri Zakri bin Abdul Hamid has had a distinguished career in science as a researcher, educator, administrator and diplomat.
Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists was established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Leonard Blavatnik, chairman of Access Industries, and the New York Academy of Sciences, headed by president Nicholas Dirks.
Taylor C. Wallace is an American food and nutrition scientist and media personality. Wallace is the principal consultant at the Think Healthy Group, an adjunct clinical associate professor in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University, and an adjunct associate professor in the Gerald J. And Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Wallace has previously served in senior staff positions at The National Osteoporosis Foundation, and Council for Responsible Nutrition. He serves as the Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dietary Supplements and has authored over 100 research studies.
Eunice Thomasina Thomas Miner, affectionately called "Tommy," served as the Executive Director of the New York Academy of Sciences from 1939 to 1967. She oversaw the revitalization of the organization and secured a new donated headquarters from Norman Woolworth. She was an advocate for the support of science in public health causes, including collaborating with Hilary Koprowski to support polio vaccine work.
Planetary health is a multi- and transdisciplinary research paradigm, a new science for exceptional action, and a global movement. Planetary health refers to "the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends". In 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on Planetary Health launched the concept which is currently being developed towards a new health science with over 25 areas of expertise.
Peter Daszak is a British zoologist, consultant and public expert on disease ecology, in particular on zoonosis. He is the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit non-governmental organization that supports various programs on global health and pandemic prevention. He is also a member of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He lives in Suffern, New York.
1 2 3 "The New York Academy of Sciences and the American Intellectual Tradition: An Historical Overview". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. 37 (1): 3–13. December 1975. doi:10.1111/j.2164-0947.1975.tb03035.x. PMID766353.
↑ "Cardiovascular Effects of Nicotine and Smoking". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 90: 5–344. September 1960. doi:10.1111/nyas.1960.90.issue-1.
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