Pontificia accademia delle scienze | |
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| Type | Catholic,Research institute,Pontifical University |
|---|---|
| Established | 1936; 89 years ago (1936) |
| Chancellor | Peter Turkson |
| President | Joachim von Braun[1] |
| Location | Casina Pio IV 00120Vatican City 41°54′15″N12°27′9″E / 41.90417°N 12.45250°E /41.90417; 12.45250 |
| Website | pas.va |
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ThePontifical Academy of Sciences (Italian:Pontificia accademia delle scienze,Latin:Pontificia Academia Scientiarum) is ascientific academy of theVatican City, established in 1936 byPope Pius XI.[2] Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences and the study of relatedepistemological problems. The Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes") was founded in 1847 as a more closely supervised successor to theAccademia dei Lincei ("Academy of Lynxes") established in Rome in 1603 by the learned Roman Prince,Federico Cesi (1585–1630), who was a young botanist and naturalist, and which claimedGalileo Galilei as its president. The Accademia dei Lincei survives as a wholly separate institution.[3]
The Academy of Sciences, one of thePontifical academies at the Vatican in Rome, is headquartered in theCasina Pio IV in the heart of theVatican Gardens.[4]
Cesi wanted his academicians to adhere to a research methodology based upon observation, experimentation, and the inductive method. He thus called his academy "dei lincei" because its members had "eyes as sharp aslynxes," scrutinizing nature at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. The leader of the first academy was the scientistGalileo Galilei.[5]
Academy of Lynxes was dissolved after the death of its founder, but was re-created byPope Pius IX in 1847 and given the name Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"). It was later re-founded in 1936 byPope Pius XI and given its current name.Pope Paul VI in 1976 andPope John Paul II in 1986 subsequently updated its statutes.[6]
Since 1936, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has been concerned both with investigating specific scientific subjects belonging to individual disciplines and with the promotion of interdisciplinary co-operation. It has progressively increased the number of its academicians and the international character of its membership. The Academy is an independent body within the Holy See and enjoys freedom of research. The statutes of 1976 express its goal: "The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has as its goal the promotion of the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences, and the study of related epistemological questions and issues."[3]
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Since the Academy and its membership is not influenced by factors of a national, political, or religious character it represents a valuable source of objective scientific information which is made available to the Holy See and to the international scientific community. Today the work of the Academy covers six main areas:
The disciplines involved are sub-divided into eight fields: the disciplines of physics and related disciplines; astronomy; chemistry; the earth and environmental sciences; the life sciences (botany, agronomy, zoology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, the neurosciences, surgery); mathematics; the applied sciences; and the philosophy and history of sciences.[7]
Principal among the many publications produced by the Academy are:
With the goal of promoting scientific research, the Pius XI Medal is awarded by the Academy every two years to a young scientist who is under the age of 45 and shows exceptional promise. A few of the winners have also become members of the Academy.[9]
The goals and hopes of the Academy were expressed byPope Pius XI in themotu proprio "In multis solaciis" which brought about its re-foundation in 1936:
Forty years later (10 November 1979),John Paul II once again emphasized the role and goals of the Academy, on the 100th anniversary (centenary) of the birth ofAlbert Einstein:
On 8 November 2012Pope Benedict XVI told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences:
The new members of the Academy are elected by the body of Academicians and chosen from men and women of every race and religion based on the high scientific value of their activities and their high moral profile. They are then officially appointed by the Roman Pontiff. The Academy is governed by a President, appointed from its members by the Pope, who is helped by a scientific Council and by the Chancellor. Initially made up of 80 Academicians, 70 who were appointed for life. In 1986John Paul II raised the number of members for life to 80, side by side with a limited number of Honorary Academicians chosen because they are highly qualified figures, and others who are Academicians because of the posts they hold, including the Chancellor of the Academy, the Director of theVatican Observatory, the Prefect of theVatican Apostolic Library, and the Prefect of theVatican Secret Archives.[citation needed]
The president of the Academy is appointed from its members by the Pope. The current president isJoachim von Braun,[13] as of 21 June 2017, who assumed the position afterWerner Arber,[14] who is a Nobel Prize Laureate and was the first Protestant to hold the position.
The list of all current and past presidents of the Academy is below:
| Name | Start of Presidential Term | End of Presidential Term |
|---|---|---|
| Agostino GemelliO.F.M. | 28 October 1936 | 15 July 1959 |
| Georges Lemaître | 19 March 1960 | 20 June 1966 |
| Daniel Joseph Kelly O'Connell | 15 January 1968 | 15 January 1972 |
| Carlos Chagas Filho | 9 November 1972 | 30 October 1988 |
| Giovanni Battista Marini Bettolo Marconi | 31 October 1988 | 29 March 1993 |
| Nicola Cabibbo | 30 March 1993 | 16 August 2010 |
| Werner Arber | 20 December 2010 | 20 June 2017 |
| Joachim von Braun | 21 June 2017 | - |
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