American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
(AAAS), founded in 1848, is the world's largest general
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
society. It serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science and engineering, representing 10 million individuals worldwide. It is publisher of the journal ''Science'', which has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world and an estimated total readership of 1 million. AAAS fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; communication; and more. It is a non-profit organization, with membership open to everyone.
AAAS presidents serve a one-year term, beginning in mid-February at the close of the AAAS Annual Meeting. In accordance with the convention used by the AAAS, presidents are referenced based on the year in which they left office. The presidential term is preceded by a one-year term as president-elect, and followed by a one-year term as chair of the AAAS Board of Directors.
Benjamin Peirce
Benjamin Peirce (; April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for approximately 50 years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philoso ...
* 1853: ''Presidency Vacant''
* 1854: James D. Dana
* 1855:
John Torrey
John Torrey (August 15, 1796 – March 10, 1873) was an American botany, botanist, chemist, and physician. Throughout much of his career, he was a teacher of chemistry, often at multiple universities, while he also pursued botanical work, focus ...
Alexis Caswell
Alexis Caswell (January 29, 1799 – January 8, 1877) was an American educator, born in Taunton, Massachusetts, Taunton, Massachusetts. He graduated Brown University in 1822, and entered the Baptist ministry.
Career
Caswell was professor of math ...
* 1857:
Jacob Whitman Bailey
Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811–1857) was an American naturalist, known as the pioneer in microscopic research in America.Makers of American Botany, Harry Baker Humphrey, Ronald Press Company, Library of Congress Card Number 61-18435
Biography ...
* 1858:
Jeffries Wyman
Jeffries Wyman (August 11, 1814 – September 4, 1874) was an American naturalist and anatomist, born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Wyman died in Bethlehem, New Hampshire of a pulmonary hemorrhage.
Career
He graduated Harvard College in 183 ...
Isaac Lea
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was the ...
* 1861-5: Presidency vacant
* 1866:
F. A. P. Barnard
Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (May 5, 1809 – April 27, 1889) was an American academic and educator who served as the 10th President of Columbia University. Born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, he graduated from Yale University in 1828 and ser ...
T. Sterry Hunt
Thomas Sterry Hunt (September 5, 1826February 12, 1892) was an American geologist and chemist.
Biography
Hunt was born at Norwich, Connecticut. He lost his father when twelve years old, and had to earn his own livelihood. In the course of two ...
* 1870:
William Chauvenet
William Chauvenet (24 May 1820 in Milford, Pennsylvania – 13 December 1870 in St. Paul, Minnesota) was a professor of mathematics, astronomy, navigation, and surveying who was instrumental in the establishment of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapo ...
* 1871:
Asa Gray
Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...
Joseph Lovering
Joseph Lovering (25 December 1813 – 18 January 1892) was an American scientist and educator.
Biography
Lovering graduated from Harvard in 1833. In 1838, he was named Hollis Professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard. He held thi ...
Julius Erasmus Hilgard
Julius Erasmus Hilgard (January 7, 1825 – May 8, 1891) was a German- American engineer.
Biography
Julius Erasmus Hilgard was born at Zweibrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate on January 7, 1825. His father, Theodore Erasmus Hilgard, was for many yea ...
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in Nov ...
* 1878:
Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among h ...
Lewis H. Morgan
Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social ev ...
Edward S. Morse
Edward Sylvester Morse (June 18, 1838 – December 20, 1925) was an American zoologist, archaeologist, and oriental studies, orientalist. He is considered the "Father of Japanese archaeology."
Early life
Morse was born in Portland, Maine, ...
* 1887:
Samuel P. Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who Invention, invented the bolometer. He was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of a ...
* 1888:
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...
Joseph LeConte
Joseph Le Conte (alternative spelling: Joseph LeConte) (February 26, 1823 – July 6, 1901) was a physician, geologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley and early California conservationist.
Early life
Of Huguenot descent, h ...
* 1893:
William Harkness
William Harkness (December 17, 1837 – February 28, 1903) was an astronomer. He was born at Ecclefechan, Scotland, a son of James (1803–78) and Jane (née Wield) Harkness. His father was a pastor and moved the family to the United States. H ...
Theodore Gill
Theodore Nicholas Gill (March 21, 1837 – September 25, 1914) was an American ichthyologist, mammalogist, malacologist and librarian.
Career
Born and educated in New York City under private tutors, Gill early showed interest in natural histor ...
Oliver Wolcott Gibbs
Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (February 21, 1822 – December 9, 1908) was an American chemist. He is known for performing the first electrogravimetric analyses, namely the reductions of copper and nickel ions to their respective metals.
Biograp ...
Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam (April 16, 1839 – August 14, 1915) was an American anthropologist and biologist.
Biography
Putnam was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer (1797–1876) and Elizabeth (Appleton) Putnam. After leavin ...
Marcus Benjamin
Marcus Benjamin (1857–1932) was an American editor, born at San Francisco, California, and educated at the Columbia University, Columbia University School of Mines. After following his profession of chemist for several years, he turned to ed ...
Ira Remsen
Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was an American chemist who discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin along with Constantin Fahlberg. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University.
Early life
Ira Remsen was bor ...
* 1902:
Asaph Hall
Asaph Hall III (October 15, 1829 – November 22, 1907) was an American astronomer who is best known for having discovered the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877. He determined the orbits of satellites of other planets and of double s ...
William H. Welch
William Henry Welch (April 8, 1850 – April 30, 1934) was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical-school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.E. L. Nichols
* 1908: Thomas C. Chamberlin
* 1909:
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...
* 1910:
Albert A. Michelson
Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the speed of light and esp ...
Charles W. Eliot
Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfo ...
* 1915:
William Wallace Campbell
William Wallace Campbell (April 11, 1862 – June 14, 1938) was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1901 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy. He was the tenth president of the University of California from 1923 to 1 ...
John Merle Coulter
John Merle Coulter, Ph. D. (November 20, 1851 – December 23, 1928) was an American botanist and educator. In his career in education administration, Coulter is notable for serving as the president of Indiana University and Lake Forest College a ...
* 1919:
Simon Flexner
Simon Flexner, M.D. (March 25, 1863 in Louisville, Kentucky – May 2, 1946) was a physician, scientist, administrator, and professor of experimental pathology at the University of Pennsylvania (1899–1903). He served as the first director ...
Eliakim H. Moore
Eliakim Hastings Moore (June 19, 1812 – April 4, 1900) was an American politician who served one term as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1869 to 1871.
Biography
Moore was born to David & Dolly (H ...
Charles D. Walcott
Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, and director of the United States Geological Survey.Wonderful Life (book) by Stephen Jay Go ...
Michael I. Pupin
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin ( sr-Cyrl, Михајло Идворски Пупин, ; 4 October 1858Although Pupin's birth year is sometimes given as 1854 (and Serbia and Montenegro issued a postage stamp in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary o ...
* 1926:
Liberty Hyde Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey (March 15, 1858 – December 25, 1954) was an American horticulturist and reformer of rural life. He was cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.Makers of American Botany, Harry Baker Humphrey, Ronald Press ...
* 1927:
Arthur Amos Noyes
Arthur Amos Noyes (September 13, 1866 – June 3, 1936) was an American chemist, inventor and educator. He received a PhD in 1890 from Leipzig University under the guidance of Wilhelm Ostwald.
He served as the acting president of MIT between ...
Robert A. Millikan
Robert Andrews Millikan (March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953) was an American experimental physicist honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the Elementary charge, elementary electric charge and for his work on ...
Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...
* 1932:
John Jacob Abel
John Jacob Abel (19 May 1857 – 26 May 1938) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. He established the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1893, and then became America's first full-time professor o ...
Walter B. Cannon
Walter Bradford Cannon (October 19, 1871 – October 1, 1945) was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. He coined the term "fight or flight response", and developed the theory ...
Arthur H. Compton
Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his 1923 discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radia ...
* 1943:
Isaiah Bowman
Isaiah Bowman, AB, Ph. D. (December 26, 1878, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada – January 6, 1950, Baltimore, Maryland), was an American geographer and President of the Johns Hopkins University, 1935–1948, controversial for his antisemitism and ...
James B. Conant
James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 – February 11, 1978) was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany. Conant obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1916. ...
Harlow Shapley
Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal.
Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estim ...
Roger Adams
Roger Adams (January 2, 1889 – July 6, 1971) was an American organic chemist who developed the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and helped determine the composition of natural substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids. He isolat ...
* 1951:
Kirtley Fletcher Mather
Kirtley Fletcher Mather (February 13, 1888May 5, 1978) was an American geologist and faculty member at Harvard University. An expert on petroleum geology and mineralogy, Mather was a prominent scholar, advocate for academic freedom, social activi ...
Warren Weaver
Warren Weaver (July 17, 1894 – November 24, 1978) was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of machine translation and as an important figure in creating support for scien ...
* 1955:
George W. Beadle
George Wells Beadle (October 22, 1903 – June 9, 1989) was an American geneticist. In 1958 he shared one-half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward Tatum for their discovery of the role of genes in regulating biochemical even ...
Chauncey D. Leake
Chauncey Depew Leake (September 5, 1896 – January 11, 1978) was an American pharmacologist, medical historian and ethicist. Leake received a bachelor's degree with majors in biology, chemistry, and philosophy from Princeton University. He r ...
Alfred S. Romer
Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution.
Biography
Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...
* 1967:
Don K. Price
Don Krasher Price (23 January 1910 – 9 July 1995) was an American political scientist who served as the founding dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1958 to 1976. He wrote a number of books about United States history and United ...
* 1968:
Walter Orr Roberts
Walter Orr Roberts (August 20, 1915 – March 12, 1990) was an American astronomer and atmospheric physicist, as well as an educator, philanthropist, and builder. He founded the National Center for Atmospheric Research and took a personal research ...
Athelstan Spilhaus
Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus (November 25, 1911 – March 30, 1998) was a South African-American geophysicist and oceanographer. Among other accomplishments, Spilhaus is credited with proposing the establishment of Sea Grant Colleges at a meeting ...
* 1971:
Mina Rees
Mina Spiegel Rees (August 2, 1902 – October 25, 1997) was an American mathematician. She was the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971) and head of the mathematics department of the Office of N ...
* 1972:
Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...
Roger Revelle
Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (March 7, 1909 – July 15, 1991) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global ...
* 1975:
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...
* 1976:
William D. McElroy
William David McElroy (22 January 1917 – 17 February 1999) was an American biochemist and academic administrator.
Biography
Early years
McElroy was born to William D. McElroy and Ora Shipley in Rogers, Texas. After graduating from McAllen Hi ...
* 1977–1978:
Emilio Q. Daddario
Emilio Quincy Daddario (September 24, 1918 – July 7, 2010) was an Americans, American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Connecticut. He served as a member of the 86th United States Congress, 86th through 91st Unite ...
Kenneth E. Boulding
Kenneth Ewart Boulding (; January 18, 1910 – March 18, 1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher.David LatzkoKenneth E. Boulding Commentsat personal.psu.edu. Accessed 24 April 200 ...
* 1981:
Frederick Mosteller
Charles Frederick Mosteller (December 24, 1916 – July 23, 2006) was an American mathematician, considered one of the most eminent statisticians of the 20th century. He was the founding chairman of Harvard's statistics department from 19 ...
Anna J. Harrison
Anna Jane Harrison (December 23, 1912 – August 8, 1998) was an American organic chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years. She was the first female President of the American Chemical Society, and the ...
* 1985:
David A. Hamburg
David Allen Hamburg (October 1, 1925 – April 21, 2019) was an American psychiatrist. He served as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1982 to 1997. He also served as the President of the Institute of Medicine, National Academ ...
* 1986:
Gerard Piel
Gerard Piel (1 March 1915 in Woodmere, N.Y. – 5 September 2004) was the publisher of the new Scientific American magazine starting in 1948. He wrote for magazines, including ''The Nation'', and published books on science for the general p ...
Sheila E. Widnall
Sheila Marie Evans Widnall (born July 13, 1938) is an American aerospace researcher and Institute Professor Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She served as United States Secretary of the Air Force from 1993 to 1997, makin ...
Donald N. Langenberg
Donald Newton Langenberg (March 17, 1932 – January 25, 2019) was an American physicist, academic, and university administrator. He served as chancellor of the University System of Maryland from 1990 until 2002 and was the first chancellor of the ...
* 1992:
Leon M. Lederman
Leon Max Lederman (July 15, 1922 – October 3, 2018) was an American experimental physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988, along with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, for research on neutrinos. He also received the Wolf P ...
* 1993:
F. Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood "Sherry" Rowland (June 28, 1927 – March 10, 2012) was an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research was on atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics. His be ...
Francisco J. Ayala
Francisco José Ayala Pereda (born March 12, 1934) is a Spanish-American evolutionary biologist, philosopher, and former Catholic priest who was a longtime faculty member at the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Dav ...
Jane Lubchenco
Jane Lubchenco (born December 4, 1947) is an American environmental scientist and marine ecologist who teaches and conducts research at Oregon State University. Her research interests include interactions between the environment and human well-be ...
M. R. C. Greenwood
Mary Rita Cooke Greenwood (born April 11, 1943) is a nationally recognized leader in higher education, nutrition, and health sciences. Additionally, her research has been extensively published, internationally recognized, and has earned awards.
...
* 2000:
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould sp ...
* 2001:
Mary L. Good
Mary Lowe Good (June 20, 1931 – November 20, 2019) was an American inorganic chemist who worked academically, in industrial research and in government. Good contributed to the understanding of catalysts such as ruthenium which activate or speed ...
* 2002:
Peter H. Raven
Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Early life
On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, Chi ...
Mary Ellen Avery
Mary Ellen Avery (May 6, 1927 – December 4, 2011), also known as Mel, was an American pediatrician. In the 1950s, Avery's pioneering research efforts helped lead to the discovery of the main cause of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in prem ...
* 2005:
Shirley Ann Jackson
Shirley Ann Jackson, (born August 5, 1946) is an American physicist, and was the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the first African-American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
John Holdren
John Paul Holdren (born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1944) is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues through his roles as Assistant to the President for Science and ...
* 2008:
David Baltimore
David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technol ...
Peter Agre
Peter Agre (born January 30, 1949) is an American physician, Nobel Laureate, and molecular biologist, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and director o ...
* 2011:
Alice S. Huang
Alice S. Huang (; is an American biologist specialized in microbiology and virology. She served as President of AAAS during the 2010-2011 term.
Early years
Alice Huang's father, Quentin K. Y. Huang, was orphaned at age 12 in Anhui, China and w ...
* 2012:
Nina Fedoroff
Nina Vsevolod Fedoroff (born April 9, 1942) is an American molecular biologist known for her research in life sciences and biotechnology, especially transposable elements or jumping genes. and plant stress response.Elder, Andy (Fall 2002Faces of ...
Phillip A. Sharp
Phillip Allen Sharp (born June 6, 1944) is an American geneticist and molecular biologist who co-discovered RNA splicing. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Richard J. Roberts for "the discovery that genes in euka ...
* 2015:
Gerald Fink
Gerald Ralph Fink (born July 1, 1940) is an American biologist, who was Director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT from 1990–2001. He graduated from Amherst College in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1965, having elucidated ...
* 2016:
Geraldine L. Richmond
Geraldine Lee Richmond (born January 17, 1953 in Salina, Kansas) is an American chemist and Physical chemistry, physical chemist who is serving as the Under Secretary of Energy for Science in the US Department of Energy. Richmond was confirmed to ...
* 2017:
Barbara A. Schaal
Barbara Anna Schaal (born 1947 in Berlin, Germany, naturalized in 1956) American scientist, evolutionary biologist, is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis and vice president of the National Academy of Sciences. She is the first woma ...
* 2018:
Susan Hockfield
Susan Hockfield (born March 24, 1951) is an American neuroscientist who served as the sixteenth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from December 2004 through June 2012. Hockfield succeeded Charles M. Vest and was succeeded by ...
Jacob Whitman Bailey
Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811–1857) was an American naturalist, known as the pioneer in microscopic research in America.Makers of American Botany, Harry Baker Humphrey, Ronald Press Company, Library of Congress Card Number 61-18435
Biography ...
died on 26 February 1857, at the beginning of his term of office as Association President.
* Between 1861 and 1865 the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
created political pressures that led to the indefinite postponement of all AAAS events during that period. See AAAS history for more information.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...