Anniversary Events
March 27, 2013
Washington, DC
Science Quiz Night on the state-of-the-art science and historical research published in the 1977 classic PNAS paper on 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, which helped researchers identify and classify microbes. Co-sponsored by the Koshland Science Museum and PNAS.
Learn more and register online.
April 4, 2013
Irvine, California
Public lecture by historian Peter Westwick on significant contributions of the NAS over the past decades. Contact Distinctive Voices for more information.
April 29, 2013
Washington DC
Public symposium held as part of the Academy's 150th annual meeting will feature prominent historians and panelists who are personally familiar with the work of the NAS. Learn more and register online.
October 16-18, 2013
Washington DC
Sackler Colloquium on the first 150 years of the NAS. Agenda and registration details to follow later this year. Contact the Sackler Colloquia staff for updates and e-alerts.
March 2013
Editorial in PNAS by NAS President Ralph Cicerone
On the occasion of the Academy's 150th anniversary, NAS President Ralph Cicerone discusses the missions and work of the Academy and not only its historical significance but also its value in the future. Read this editorial online, to appear in the March 19 print edition of PNAS.
Discussion on the Founding of the NAS Now Available on C-SPAN
In this 2012 discussion held at the Library of Congress, panelists talk about the establishment of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863 and look at how the U.S. government has supported science and education. This conference was hosted by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in cooperation with the Association of Public Land Grant Universities and the National Academy of Sciences. Watch the video of this discussion on the CSPAN.org web site.
February 2013
"Not A Hundred Millionaires" — The Founding of the NAS
"The creation of the National Academy of Sciences was one sign of the expanding government support of science and engineering that began during the Civil War and continued to grow in the decades that followed." Thus begins Not A Hundred Millionaires: The National Academy and the Expansion of Federal Science in the Gilded Age, a paper by leading historian Daniel J. Kevles that sets the stage for the founding of the NAS. Kevles is collaborating with fellow historians Ruth Schwartz Cowan and Peter Westwick on an updated history of the Academy. His article appears in the winter issue of Issues in Science and Technology.
- Read Morehere
