Pontifical Academy of Sciences

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is a scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences and the study of related epistemological problems. The Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei was founded in 1847 as a more closely supervised successor to the Accademia dei Lincei established in Rome in 1603 by the learned Roman Prince, Federico Cesi, who was a young botanist and naturalist, and which claimed Galileo Galilei as its president. The Accademia dei Lincei survives as a wholly separate institution.
The Academy of Sciences, one of the Pontifical academies at the Vatican in Rome, is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in the heart of the Vatican Gardens.

History

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 as lynxes," scrutinizing nature at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. The leader of the first academy was the scientist Galileo Galilei.
Academy of Lynxes was dissolved after the death of its founder, but was re-created by Pope Pius IX in 1847 and given the name Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei. It was later re-founded in 1936 by Pope Pius XI and given its current name. Pope Paul VI in 1976 and Pope John Paul II in 1986 subsequently updated its statutes.
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."

Activities

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:

fundamental science
the science and technology of global questions and issues
science in favor of the problems of the Third World
the ethics and politics of science
bioethics
epistemology

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 ; mathematics; the applied sciences; and the philosophy and history of sciences.
Principal among the many publications produced by the Academy are:

Acta – proceedings of the Plenary Sessions
Scripta Varia – major works such as full reports on Study Weeks & Working Groups held at the Academy; some, due to their special importance, have been taken up by foreign publishers
Documenta & Extra Series – for quick publication of summaries and conclusions of Study Weeks and Working Groups; also for rapid diffusion of Papal addresses to the Academy, and of significant documents such as the "Declaration on the Prevention of Nuclear War"
Commentarii – notes and memoirs as well as special studies on scientific subjects.

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.

Goals and hopes of the Academy

The goals and hopes of the Academy were expressed by Pope Pius XI in the motu proprio "In multis solaciis" which brought about its re-foundation in 1936:
Forty years later, John Paul II once again emphasized the role and goals of the Academy, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein:
On 8 November 2012 Pope Benedict XVI told members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences:

Members

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 1986 John 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 the Vatican Observatory, the Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

President

The president of the Academy is appointed from its members by the Pope. The current president is Joachim von Braun, as of 21 June 2017, who assumed the position after Werner Arber, 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 Gemelli O.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	-