Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences


The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting natural sciences and mathematics and strengthening their influence in society, whilst endeavouring to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.
The goals of the academy are:
  • To be a forum where researchers meet across subject boundaries,
  • To offer a unique environment for research,
  • To provide support to younger researchers,
  • To reward outstanding research efforts,
  • To communicate internationally among scientists,
  • To advance the case for science within society and to influence research policy priorities
  • To stimulate interest in mathematics and science in school, and
  • To disseminate and popularize scientific information in various forms.
Every year, the academy awards the Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the Crafoord Prize, the Sjöberg Prize and several other awards. The academy maintains close relations with foreign academies, learned societies and international scientific organizations and also promotes international scientific cooperation. The Academy of Sciences is located within the Stockholm region's Royal National City Park.

Prizes

Notable international prizes

The academy has elected about 1,700 Swedish and 1,200 foreign members since it was founded in 1739. Today, the academy has about 470 Swedish and 175 foreign members which are divided into ten "classes", representing ten various scientific disciplines:
The following persons have served as permanent secretaries of the academy:
The transactions of the academy were published as its main series between 1739 and 1974. In parallel, other major series have appeared and gone:
  • Öfversigt af Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens förhandlingar
  • Bihang till Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar
  • Vetenskapsakademiens årsbok
The academy started publishing annual reports in physics and chemistry, technology, botany, and zoology. These lasted into the 1860s, when they were replaced by the single Bihang series. Starting in 1887, this series was once again split into four sections, which in 1903, became independent scientific journals of their own, titled "Arkiv för...". These included:
  • Arkiv för botanik
  • Arkiv för kemi, mineralogi och geologi
  • Arkiv för matematik, astronomi och fysik
  • Arkiv för Zoologi
Further restructuring of their topics occurred in 1949 and 1974. Other defunct journals of the academy include:
  • Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence
;Current publications
  • Ambio
  • Acta Mathematica
  • Arkiv för Matematik
  • Acta Zoologica
  • Levnadsteckningar över Vetenskapsakademiens ledamöter, biographies of deceased members
  • Porträttmatrikel, portraits of current members
  • Zoologica Scripta, jointly with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

    History

The academy was founded on 2 June 1739 by naturalist Carl Linnaeus, mercantilist Jonas Alströmer, mechanical engineer Mårten Triewald, civil servants Sten Carl Bielke and Carl Wilhelm Cederhielm, and statesman/author Anders Johan von Höpken.
The purpose of the academy was to focus on practically useful knowledge, and to publish in Swedish in order to widely disseminate the academy's findings. The academy was intended to be different from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, which had been founded in 1719 and published in Latin. The location close to the commercial activities in Sweden's capital was also intentional. The academy was modeled after the Royal Society of London and Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris, France, which some of the founding members were familiar with.