French Academy of Sciences

For the National Academy of Medicine, see Académie Nationale de Médecine.

Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667

The French Academy of Sciences (French: Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is one of the earliest academies of sciences.

History

A heroic depiction of the activities of the Academy from 1698

The Academy of Sciences owes its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose a small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence were relatively informal, since no statutes had as yet been laid down for the institution. In contrast to its British counterpart, the Academy was founded as an organ of government. The Academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious and social issues (Conner, 2005, p. 385).

On 20 January 1699, Louis XIV gave the Company its first rules. The Academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the Louvre in Paris. On 8 August 1793, the National Convention abolished all the academies. On 22 August 1795, a National Institute of Sciences and Arts was put in place, bringing together the old academies of the sciences, literature and arts, among them the Académie française and the Académie des sciences. Almost all the old members of the previously abolished Académie were formally re-elected and retook their ancient seats. Among the exceptions was Dominique, comte de Cassini, who refused to take his seat. Membership in the Academy was not restricted to scientists: in 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte was elected a member of the Academy and three years later a president in connection with his Egyptian expedition, which had a scientific component.^[1] In 1816, the again renamed Royal Academy of Sciences became autonomous, while forming part of the Institute of France; the head of State became its patron. In the Second Republic, the name returned to Académie des sciences. During this period, the Academy was funded by and accountable to the Ministry of Public Instruction.^[2] The Academy came to control French patent laws in the course of the eighteenth century, acting as the liaison of artisans' knowledge to the public domain. As a result, academicians dominated technological activities in France (Conner, 2005, p. 385). The Academy proceedings were published under the name "Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences" (1835–1965). The publications can be found on site of the French National Library in pdf format.

For three centuries women were not allowed as members of the Academy, excluding two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, Nobel winner Irène Joliot-Curie, mathematician Sophie Germain, and many other deserving female scientists. The first woman admitted as a correspondent member was a student of Curie's, Marguerite Perey, in 1962. The first female full member was Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat in 1979.

The Academy today

The Institut de France in Paris where the Academy is housed

Today the Academy is one of five academies comprising the Institut de France. Its members are elected for life. Currently there are 150 full members, 300 corresponding members, and 120 foreign associates. They are divided into two scientific groups: the Mathematical and Physical sciences and their applications and the Chemical, Biological, Geological and Medical sciences and their applications.

Medals, awards and prizes

Each year, the Academy of Sciences distributes about 80 prizes. These include:

• the Grande Médaille, awarded annually, in rotation, in the relevant disciplines of each division of the Academy, to a French or foreign scholar who has contributed to the development of science in a decisive way.
• the Lalande Prize, awarded from 1802 through 1970, for outstanding achievement in astronomy
• the Richard Lounsbery Award, jointly with the National Academy of Sciences
• the Prix Jacques Herbrand – for physics

People of the Academy

The following are incomplete lists of the officers of the Academy. See also Category:Officers of the French Academy of Sciences.

For a list of the Academy's members past and present, see Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences

Presidents

• 1801–1814 Napoleon Bonaparte
• 1952–1962 Albert Caquot
• Currently Jean Salençon

Treasurers

• -1788 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
• 1788–1791 Mathieu Tillet

Permanent secretaries

• December 1666 – April 1668 Jean-Baptiste Du Hamel
• April 1668 – December 1669 Jean Gallois
• January 1670 – January 1697 Jean-Baptiste Du Hamel
• January 1697 – December 1740 Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (nominated by the king in January 1699)
• January 1741 – August 1743 Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan
• September 1743 – July 1776 Jean-Paul Grandjean de Fouchy
• August 1777 – August 1793 Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet

Mathematical Sciences and then Mathematical Sciences and Physics

• 1801–1822 Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre
• 1822–1830 Joseph Fourier
• 1830–1853 François Arago
• 1853–1874 Léonce Élie de Beaumont
• 1874–1900 Joseph Bertrand
• 1900–1917 Gaston Darboux
• 1917–1942 Émile Picard
• 1942–1975 Louis de Broglie
• 1975–1996 Paul Germain
• Currently: Jean Dercourt

Physical Sciences

• 1795–1803 Bernard Germain de Lacépède
• 1803–1832 Georges Cuvier
• 1832–1833 Pierre-Louis Dulong
• 1833–1868 Pierre Flourens
• 1868–1884 Jean-Baptiste Dumas
• 1884–1886 Jules Jamin
• 1886–1887 Alfred Vulpian
• 1887–1889 Louis Pasteur
• 1889–1907 Marcelin Berthelot
• 1907 Albert de Lapparent
• 1908 Henri Becquerel
• 1908–1914 Philippe van Thieghem
• 1914–1948 Alfred Lacroix

Chemistry and Biology

• 1948–1986 Robert Courrier
• 1986–1991 Alfred Jost
• 1991–2001 François Gros
• 2001–2006 Nicole Le Douarin
• Currently Jean-François Bach

Notes

1. ^ Alder, Ken (2002), The Measure of All Things – The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World, The Free Press, ISBN 074321675X 
2. ^ Crosland 1992

References

• Crosland, Maurice P. (1992), Science Under Control: The French Academy of Sciences, 1795–1914, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 052152475X 
• Stroup, Alice (1987), Royal Funding of the Parisian Académie Royale Des Sciences During the 1690s, DIANE Publishing, ISBN 0871697742 
• Sturdy, David J. (1995), Science and Social Status: The Members of the Academie Des Sciences 1666–1750, Boydell & Brewer, ISBN 085115395X 

External links

• Official website (French) - English-language version
• Complete listing of current members
• Notes on the Académie des Sciences from the Scholarly Societies project (includes information on the society journals)
• Search the Proceedings of the Académie des sciences in the French National Library (search item: Comptes Rendus)