American Association for the Advancement of Science

Overview[edit | edit source]

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (or AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. It is the world's largest general scientific society. The AAAS is also the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science.

History[edit | edit source]

The American Association for the Advancement of Science was created on September 20, 1848 in Pennsylvania. It was a reformation of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. The society chose William C. Redfield as their first president because he had proposed the most comprehensive plans for the organization. According to the first constitution [1] which was agreed to at the September 20th 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 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 87 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 to the United States Naval Observatory abstract logs of their voyages. With pride 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 A.A.A.S. 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, Professor Stephen Alexander of Princeton, New Jersey. This was scientific cooperation, and Maury went back to Washington with great hopes for the future.

By 1860 membership increased to over 2000. But the course of American history, however, intervened to prevent the continued growth of the AAAS. The AAAS became dormant during the American Civil War after their August 1861 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee was postponed indefinitely just after the outbreak of the first major engagement of the war at Bull Run. The AAAS was not, however, to become a casualty of the war. In 1866, Frederick Barnard presided over the first meeting of the resurrected AAAS at a meeting in New York.

Following the reformation of the AAAS, the group once again experienced a period of growth. The growth, however, was not unlimited as peace brought with it the expansion of other scientific-oriented groups. The AAAS's focus on the unification of many fields of science under a single organization still yielded some novelty. A large subset of all new science organizations that were founded to promote a single discipline. For example, American Chemical Society, founded in 1876, promotes chemistry. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was, however, founded by the United States Congress in 1863 which provided an alternative multidisciplinary sciences organization. Unlike the NAS, which elects members, 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.

Examples of AAAS activities[edit | edit source]

AAAS used satellite images in February 2007 to document human rights abuses in Burma.^[1]

Governance[edit | edit source]

The most recent Constitution of the AAAS which was enacted on January 1, 1973 establishes that the governance of the AAAS is accomplished through four entities:

• The Office of the President
• The Administrative Officers
• The Council
• The Board of Directors

Presidents[edit | edit source]

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.

The current president of AAAS is David Baltimore. He is the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he served as president from 1997 to 2006. He is also a recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of reverse transcriptase, which transcribes RNA into DNA.

Baltimore became president in February 2007 and will become chairman of the AAAS Board of Directors on 18 February 2008, at the close of the association's five-day Annual Meeting. His successor is President-elect James J. McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University and former director of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. McCarthy will become president of AAAS in February 2008.

Past presidents of AAAS have included some of the most imporant scientific figures of their time. Among them: explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell (1888); astronomer and physicist Edward Charles Pickering (1912); anthropoligst Margaret Mead (1975); and biologist Stephen Jay Gould (2000).

Administrative Officers[edit | edit source]

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.

Sections of the AAAS[edit | edit source]

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, social and political science, the social impact of science and engineering, and statistics.

Affiliates[edit | edit source]

AAAS affiliates include 262 societies and academies of science, serving more than 10 million members, from the Acoustical Society of America to the The Wildlife Society, including for example also the Parapsychological Association ^[2]

The Council[edit | edit source]

The Council is composed of the members of the Board of Directors, the retiring section chairmen and elected delegates. 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 server 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 Fellow, 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 Board of Directors[edit | edit source]

The Board of Directors is composed of a Chairperson, the President and President-Elect along with eight elected Directors, the Executive Officer of the Association and up to two additional Directors appointed by elected officers. Members of the Board of Directors serve a 4-year term except for Directors appointed by elected officers, who serve 3-year terms instead.

The current chairman of the Board of Directors is John P. Holdren, director of the Woods Hole Research Center, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and professor of Environmental Science and Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Holdren will serve in the post until 18 February 2008. [The chairperson of the Board of Directors 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 determination 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.

See also[edit | edit source]

• Science (journal), published by AAAS
• Science's STKE, Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment, provided by AAAS
• United States National Academy of Sciences
• National Science Foundation

Notes[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

• American Association for the Advancement of Science website
• 1973 Constitution of the AAAS

Not to be confused with[edit | edit source]

• American Aging Association

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