The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) [6, 7] is a private, non-profit national society of “distinguished scholars”, established March 3, 1863, spurred on by the demands of the American Civil War.  The Academy serves to “investigate, examine, experiment, and report” (without personal remuneration) upon any subject of scientific and related technical problems, whenever called upon to do so by any government department.  It is said to provide “independent and objective advice“. [2, 6]

The first NAS president was Alexander Dallas Bache, it was he who ” gave the most explicit and public expression of the idea of a national scientific academy”. In 1851, as outgoing AAAS president Bache “publicly recommended that the federal government establish a centralized scientific organization to be consulted by the government in matters of science and technology in order “to guide public action in reference to science matters.”

Two years later, in 1853, Bache and a group of scientists, based largely in Cambridge, Massachusetts, began meeting informally. By 1858, naturalist Louis Agassiz (who would befome the first foreign secretary), in a private letter had outlined the structure and organization of an academy of sciences.  Agassiz then enlisted the support of Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson  who drafted and presented their bill for incorporation, it was passed and signed into law by President Lincoln on March 3, 1863.  The organisation began with 50 charter members. [3, 4]

“Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive.”  There is no membership application process only already elected Academy members (control) formal nominations. [1]

Scientific and “learned” societies that were already established [5]:

  • 1743 –  American Philosophical Society (APS) was established in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin
  • 1780 – American Academy of Arts and Sciences was established in Massachusetts
  • 1840 – National Institute for the Promotion of Science was established in Washington
  • 1846 – Smithsonian Institution was established in Washington
  • 1848 – American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) were established in Philadelphia (and publishes Science Magazine)

By the 1890s the government called upon the Academy with less frequently which gave “some of the institution’s membership cause for concern”, but a “group of activist members” revitalised the institution by establishshing the National Research Council (NRC) under Academy auspices in 1916 also against the backdrop of war!

On May 3, 2017 Melissa J. Moore, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer for Moderna‘s mRNA Research Platform was elected to NAS “in recognition of their distinguished and continued achievements in original research.” [7]  Moore was founding co-director of the RNA Therapeutics Institute (RTI).