
The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a
learned society
A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...
, founded in 1666 by
Louis XIV at the suggestion of
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French
scientific research
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The ...
. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest
Academies of Sciences.
Currently headed by
Patrick Flandrin (President of the academy), it is one of the five Academies of the .
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History
The Academy of Sciences traces 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, near the present-day
Bibliothèque Nationale
A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a p ...
, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there in the two rooms assigned to the group. 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. In Paris, there were not many membership openings, to fill positions there were contentious elections.
The election process was at least a 6-stage process with rules and regulations that allowed for chosen candidates to canvas other members and for current members to consider postponing certain stages of the process if the need would arise. Elections in the early days of the academy were important activities, and as such made up a large part of the proceedings at the academy, with many meetings being held regarding the election to fill a single vacancy within the academy. That is not to say that discussion of candidates and the election process as a whole was relegated to the meetings. Members that belonged to the vacancy's respective field would continue discussion of potential candidates for the vacancy in private. Being elected into the academy did not necessarily guarantee being a full member, in some cases, one would enter the academy as an associate or correspondent before being appointed as a full member of the academy.
The election process was originally only to replace members from a specific section. For example, if someone whose study was mathematics was either removed or resigned from his position, the following election process nominated only those whose focus was also mathematics in order to fill that discipline's vacancy. That led to some periods of time in which no specialists for specific fields of study could be found, which left positions in those fields vacant since they could not be filled with people in other disciplines.
The needed reform came late in the 20th century, in 1987, when the academy decided against the practice and to begin filling vacancies with people with new disciplines. This reform was not only aimed at further diversifying the disciplines under the academy, but also to help combat the internal aging of the academy itself. The academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious and social issues.
On 20 January 1699, LouisXIV gave the Company its first rules. The academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
in Paris. Following this reform, the academy began publishing a volume each year with information on all the work done by its members and obituaries for members who had died. This reform also codified the method by which members of the academy could receive pensions for their work.
The academy was originally organized by the royal reform hierarchically into the following groups: Pensionaires, Pupils, Honoraires, and Associés.
The reform also added new groups not previously recognized, such as Vétéran. Some of these role's member limits were expanded and some roles even removed or combined throughout the course of academy's history. The Honoraires group establish by this reform in 1699 whose members were directly appointed by the King was recognized until its abolishment in 1793.
Membership in the academy the exceeded 100 officially-recognised full members only in 1976, 310 years after the academy's inception in 1666.
The membership increase came with a large-scale reorganization in 1976. Under this reorganization, 130 resident members, 160 correspondents, and 80 foreign associates could be elected.
A vacancy opens only upon the death of members, as they serve for life. During elections, half of the vacancies are reserved for people less than 55 years old.
This was created as an attempt to encourage younger members to join the academy.
The reorganization also divided the academy into 2 divisions:
One division, Division 1, covers the applications of mathematics and physical sciences,
the other, Division 2, covers the applications of chemical, natural, biological, and medical sciences.
On 8 August 1793, the
National Convention
The National Convention () was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the ...
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 and the Académie des sciences.
Also in 1795, The academy determined these 10 titles (first 4 in Division 1 and the others in Division 2) to be their newly accepted branches of scientific study:
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Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
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Mechanics
Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
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Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
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Physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
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Chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
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Mineralogy
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...
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Botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
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Agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
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Anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
and
Zoology
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
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Medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
and
Surgery
Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...
The last two sections are bundled since there were many good candidates fit to be elected for those practices, and the competition was stiff. Some individuals like
Francois Magendie had made stellar advancements in their selected fields of study, that warranted a possible addition of new fields. However, even someone like Magendie that had made breakthroughs in
Physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
and impressed the academy with his hands-on
vivisection
Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...
experiments, could not get his study into its own category.
Despite Magendie being one of the leading innovators of his time, it was still a battle for him to become an official member of the academy, a feat he would later accomplish in 1821.
He further improved the reverence of the academy when he and anatomist
Charles Bell produced the widely known "
Bell-Magendie Law".
From 1795 until 1914, the first world war, the French Academy of Science was the most prevalent organization of French science.
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
Jean-Dominique, comte de Cassini (30 June 174818 October 1845), also called Cassini IV, was a French astronomer, son of César-François Cassini de Thury and great-grandson of Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Cassini was born at the Paris Observato ...
, who refused to take his seat. Membership in the academy was not restricted to scientists: in 1798
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
was elected a member of the academy and three years later a president in connection with his
Egyptian expedition, which had a scientific component.
In 1816, the again renamed "Royal Academy of Sciences" became autonomous, while forming part of the
Institute of France
The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately 1 ...
; 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.
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.
The academy proceedings were published under the name ''
Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences
(, ''Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences''), or simply ''Comptes rendus'', is a French scientific journal published since 1835. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published o ...
'' (1835–1965). The ''Comptes rendus'' is now a journal series with seven titles. The publications can be found on site of the
French National Library.
In 1818 the French Academy of Sciences launched a competition to explain the properties of light. The civil engineer
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Isaac Newton, Newton's c ...
entered the competition by submitting a new
wave theory of light
In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effec ...
.
Siméon Denis Poisson
Baron Siméon Denis Poisson (, ; ; 21 June 1781 – 25 April 1840) was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, electricity ...
, one of the members of the judging committee, studied Fresnel's theory in detail. Being a supporter of the particle-theory of light, he looked for a way to disprove it. Poisson thought that he had found a flaw when he demonstrate that Fresnel's theory predicts that an on-axis bright spot would exist in the shadow of a circular obstacle, where there should be complete darkness according to the particle-theory of light. The
Poisson spot is not easily observed in every-day situations and so it was only natural for Poisson to interpret it as an absurd result and that it should disprove Fresnel's theory. However, the head of the committee,
Dominique-François-Jean Arago, and who incidentally later became Prime Minister of France, decided to perform the experiment in more detail. He molded a 2-mm metallic disk to a glass plate with wax.
To everyone's surprise he succeeded in observing the predicted spot, which convinced most scientists of the wave-nature of light.
For three centuries women were not allowed as members of the academy. This meant that many women scientists were excluded, including two-time Nobel Prize winner
Marie Curie
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity.
She was List of female ...
, Nobel winner
Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie (; ; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. They were ...
, mathematician
Sophie Germain, and many other deserving women scientists. The first woman admitted as a correspondent member was a student of Curie's,
Marguerite Perey
Marguerite Catherine Perey (19 October 1909 – 13 May 1975) was a French physicist and a student of Marie Curie. In 1939, Perey discovered the element francium by purifying samples of lanthanum that contained actinium. In 1962, she was the fi ...
, in 1962. The first female full member was
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat in 1979.
Membership in the academy is highly geared towards representing common
French populace demographics. French population increases and changes in the early 21st century led to the academy expanding reference population sizes by reform in the early 2002.
The overwhelming majority of members leave the academy posthumously, with a few exceptions of removals, transfers, and resignations. The last member to be removed from the academy was in 1944. Removal from the academy was often for not performing to standards, not performing at all, leaving the country, or political reasons. In some rare occasions, a member has been elected twice and subsequently removed twice. This is the case for
Marie-Adolphe Carnot.
Government interference
The most direct involvement of the government in the affairs of the institute came in the initial nomination of members in 1795, but as its members nominated constituted only one third of the membership and most of these had previously been elected as members of the respective academies under the old regime, few objections were raised. Moreover, these nominated members were then completely free to nominate the remaining members of the institute. Members expected to remain such for life, but interference occurred in a few cases where the government suddenly terminated membership for political reasons. The other main interference came when the government refused to accept the result of academy elections. The academies control by the government was apparent in 1803, when Bonaparte decided on a general reorganization. His principal concern was not the First class but the Second, which included political scientists who were potential critics of his government. Bonaparte abolished the second class completely and, after a few expulsions, redistributed its remaining members, together with those of the Third class, into a new Second class concerned with literature and a new Third class devoted to the fine arts. Still this relationship between the academy and the government was not a one-way affair, as members expected to receive their payment of an honorarium.
Decline
Although the academy still exists today, after World War I, the reputation and status of the academy was largely questioned.
One factor behind its decline was the development from a
meritocracy
Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than ...
to
gerontocracy
A gerontocracy is a form of rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are substantially older than most of the adult population.
In many political structures, power within the ruling class accumulates with age, making the oldest individu ...
: a shift from those with demonstrated scientific ability leading the academy to instead favoring those with seniority.
It became known as a sort of "hall of fame" that lost control, real and symbolic, of the professional scientific diversity in France at the time.
Another factor was that in the span of five years, 1909 to 1914, funding to science faculties considerably dropped, eventually leading to a financial crisis in France.
Present use

Today the academy is one of five academies comprising the . 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
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
and
Physical sciences and their applications and the
Chemical
A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...
,
Biological
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...
, Geological and Medical sciences and their applications. The academy currently has five missions that it pursues. These being the encouraging of the scientific life, promoting the teaching of science, transmitting knowledge between scientific communities, fostering international collaborations, and ensuring a dual role of expertise and advise. The French Academy of Science originally focused its development efforts into creating a true co-development Euro-African program beginning in 1997. Since then they have broadened their scope of action to other regions of the world. The standing committee COPED is in charge of the international development projects undertaken by the French Academy of Science and their associates. The current president of COPED is
Pierre Auger, the vice president is
Michel Delseny, and the honorary president is
Francois Gros. All of which are current members of the French Academy of Science. COPED has hosted several workshops or colloquia in Paris, involving representatives from African academies, universities or research centers, addressing a variety of themes and challenges dealing with African development and covering a large field spectrum. Specifically higher education in sciences, and research practices in basic and applied sciences that deal with various aspects relevant to development (renewable energy, infectious diseases, animal pathologies, food resources, access to safe water, agriculture, urban health, etc.).
Current committees and working parties
The Academic Standing Committees and Working Parties prepare the advice notes, policy statements and the Academic Reports. Some have a statutory remit, such as the Select Committee, the Committee for International Affairs and the Committee for Scientists' Rights, some are created ad hoc by the academy and approved formally by vote in a members-only session.
Today the academies standing committees and working parties include:
* The Academic Standing Committee in charge of the Biennial Report on Science and Technology
* The Academic Standing Committee for Science, Ethics and Society
* The Academic Standing Committee for the Environment
* The Academic Standing Committee for Space Research
* The Academic Standing Committee for Science and Metrology
* The Academic Standing Committee for the Science History and Epistemology
* The Academic Standing Committee for Science and Safety Issues
* The Academic Standing Committee for Science Education and Training
* The Academic Standing La main à la pâte Committee
* The Academic Standing Committee for the Defense of Scientists' Rights (CODHOS)
* The Academic Standing Committee for International Affairs (CORI)
* The French Committee for International Scientific Unions (COFUSI)
* The Academic Standing Committee for Scientific and Technological International Relations (CARIST)
* The Academic Standing Committee for Developing Countries (COPED)
* The Inter-academic Group for Development (GID) – Cf. for further reading
* The Academic Standing Commission for Sealed Deposits
* The Academic Standing Committee for Terminology and Neologisms
* The Antoine Lavoisier Standing Committee
* The Academic Standing Committee for Prospects in Energy Procurement
* The Special Academic Working Party on Scientific Computing
* The Special Academic Working Party on Material Sciences and Engineering
Medals, awards and prizes
Each year, the Academy of Sciences distributes about 80 prizes. These include:
* Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie Polish-French Science Award, created in 2022.
* 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
Valz Prize, awarded from 1877 through 1970, to honor advances in astronomy
* the
Richard Lounsbery Award, jointly with the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
* the
Prix Jacques Herbrand, for mathematics and physics
* the Prix Paul Pascal, for chemistry
* the
Louis Bachelier Prize
The Louis Bachelier Prize is a biennial prize in applied mathematics jointly awarded by the London Mathematical Society, the Natixis Foundation for Quantitative Research and the Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles (SMAI) in ...
for major contributions to mathematical modeling in finance
* the Prix Michel Monpetit for computer science and applied mathematics, awarded since 1977
[ French wikipedia article; both]
Monpetit
" and
Montpetit
" is found in Academy publications.
* the
Leconte Prize, awarded annually since 1886, to recognize important discoveries in mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history or medicine
* the Prix
Tchihatcheff (Tchihatchef; Chikhachev)
People
The following are incomplete lists of the officers of the academy. See also
:Officers of the French Academy of Sciences.
For a list of the academy's members past and present, see
:Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Presidents
Source
French Academy of Sciences
Treasurers
* ?–1788
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, and cosmology, cosmologist. He held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the ''Jardin du Roi'', now ca ...
* 1788–1791
Mathieu Tillet
Permanent secretaries
General
Mathematical Sciences
Physical Sciences
Chemistry and Biology
Publications
Publications of the French Academy of Sciences "Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences" (1700–1790)
See also
*
French art salons and academies
*
French Geodesic Mission
The French Geodesic Mission to the Equator (), also called the French Geodesic Mission to Peru and the Spanish-French Geodesic Mission, was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of performing an arc measu ...
*
History of the metre
During the French Revolution, the traditional units of measure were to be replaced by consistent measures based on natural phenomena. As a base unit of length, scientists had favoured the seconds pendulum (a pendulum with a half-period of ...
*
Seconds pendulum
A seconds pendulum is a pendulum whose period is precisely two seconds; one second for a swing in one direction and one second for the return swing, a frequency of 0.5 Hz.
Principles
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so tha ...
*
Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism
Notes
References
*
* Stéphane Schmitt, "Studies on animals and the rise of comparative anatomy at and around the Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences in the eighteenth century," Science in Context 29 (1), 2016, pp. 11–54.
*
*
External links
* �
English-language version(includes information on the society journals)
Search the Proceedings of the Académie des sciences in the French National Library (search item: Comptes Rendus)''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences. Série 1, Mathématique''in
Gallica, the digital library of the
BnF.
{{Authority control
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
Sciences
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
1666 establishments in France
Educational institutions established in the 1660s
Scientific organizations established in 1666
Members of the International Council for Science
Members of the International Science Council