The Pontifical Academy of Sciences was founded in 1936 under its current name by Pope Pius XI and is placed under the protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff (the current Pope). Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of related epistemological problems. The Academy has its origins in the Accademia dei Lincei ("Academy of Lynxes") established in Rome in 1603, under Pope Clement VIII by the learned Roman Prince, Federico Cesi (1585-1630) who was a young botanist and naturalist. Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May 31, 1857 - February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope and sovereign of Vatican City from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ... In Rome, the title of Supreme Pontiff (in Latin, Pontifex Maximus), belongs to the chief religious official of the city. ... The Accademia dei Lincei, (literally the Academy of the Lynxes, but also known as the Lincean Academy), is located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. ... Clement, in the monument in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, erected by his Borghese heirs Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini (March 1536 - March 5, 1605) was pope from 1592 to 1605. ...

Historical Background

Cesi wanted his Academicians to create a method of research based upon observation, experiment, and the inductive method. He thus called this Academy "dei Lincei" because the scientists which adhered to it had to have eyes as sharp as lynxes (the lynx is a large cat) in order to penetrate the secrets of nature, observing it at both microscopic and macroscopic levels. The leader of the first academy was the famous scientist Galileo Galilei. It was dissolved after the death of its founder and re-created by Pope Pius IX in 1847 and given the name Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), and was 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. Species Lynx lynx Lynx canadensis Lynx pardinus Lynx rufus A Lynx is any of several medium-sized wild cats. ... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht... Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti (May 13, 1792 – February 7, 1878), was pope for a record pontificate of over 31 years, from June 16, 1846 until his death. ... Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May 31, 1857 - February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope and sovereign of Vatican City from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ... Pope Paul VI (Latin: ), born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope and as sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. ... Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005), reigned as pope of the Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from 16 October 1978 until his death, making his the third-longest reign in the history of the Papacy according to the...

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. From the statutes of 1976:

"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."

Work of the Academy

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:

(a) fundamental science,

(b) the science and technology of global questions and issues,

(c) science in favor of the problems of the Third World,

(d) the ethics and politics of science,

(e) bioethics,

(f) epistemology.

The disciplines involved are sub-divided into nine fields: the disciplines of physics and related disciplines; astronomy; chemistry; the earth and environmental sciences; the life sciences (botany, agronomy, zoology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, the neurosciences, surgery); mathematics; the applied sciences; and the philosophy and history of sciences.

Members of the Academy

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 Secret Archives. Official papal image of John Paul II. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, né Karol Józef Wojtyła (born May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland), is the current Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. ... The Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana) is the astronomical research and educational institution of the Holy See. ... The Vatican Secret Archives (Archivio Segreto Vaticano) contain the central repository of all the acts that have been promulgated by the Roman Catholic Churchs Papal See, as well as diplomatic materials and correspondence of the Papal See and other documents that have accumulated over the centuries. ...

Nobel Prize Members

During its various decades of activity, the Academy has had a number of Nobel Prize winners amongst its members, many of whom were appointed Academicians before they received this prestigious international award. These include: Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ...

Lord Ernest Rutherford (Physics, 1908)

Guglielmo Marconi (Physics, 1909)

Alexis Carrel (Physiology, 1912)

Max von Laue (Physics, 1914)

Max Planck (Physics, 1918)

Niels Bohr (Physics, 1922)

Werner Heisenberg (Physics, 1932)

Paul Dirac (Physics, 1933)

Erwin Schroedinger (Physics, 1933)

Sir Alexander Fleming (Physiology, 1945)

Chen Ning Yang (Physics, 1957)

Rudolf L. Mossbauer (Physics, 1961)

Max F. Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)

John Eccles (Physiology, 1963)

Charles H. Townes (Physics, 1964)

Manfred Eigen and George Porter (Chemistry, 1967)

Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg (Physiology, 1968)

Christian de Duve (Physiology, 1974)

Werner A. G. E. Palade (Physiology, 1974)

David Baltimore (Physiology, 1975)

Aage Bohr (Physics, 1975)

Abdus Salam (Physics, 1979)

Paul Berg (Chemistry, 1980)

Kai Siegbahn (Physics, 1981)

Sune Bergstrom (Physiology, 1982)

Carlo Rubbia (Physics, 1984)

Rita Levi-Montalcini (Physiology, 1986)

John C. Polanyi (Chemistry, 1986)

Jean-Marie Lehn (Chemistry, 1987)

Joseph E. Murray (Physiology, 1990)

Gary S. Becker (Economics, 1992)

Paul J. Crutzen (Chemistry, 1995)

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (Physics, 1997)

Ahmed H. Zewail (Chemistry, 1999)

Other eminent Academicians include Padre Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959), founder of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and President of the Academy after its re-foundation until 1959, and Mons. George Lemaitre (1894-1966), one of the fathers of contemporary cosmology who held the office of President from 1960 to 1966. Guglielmo Marconi (25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer and Nobel laureate, known for the development of a practical wireless telegraphy system commonly known as the radio. Marconi was President of the Accademia dItalia and a member of the Fascist Grand Council of Italy. ... Alexis Carrel Alexis Carrel (June 28, 1873 - November 5, 1944) was a French surgeon and biologist. ... Max von Laue (October 9, 1879 - April 24, 1960) was a German physicist, who studied under Max Planck. ... Max Planck This article is about Planck, the German physicist. ... Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made essential contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics. ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, (August 8, 1902 – October 20, 1984) was a British theoretical physicist and a founder of the field of quantum physics. ... Erwin Schrödinger, as depicted on the former Austrian 1000 Schilling bank note. ... Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 - March 11, 1955) is famous as the discoverer of the antibiotic substance lysozyme and for isolating the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum. ... Dr. Chen Ning Franklin YANG Chen Ning Franklin YANG (楊振寧 pinyin: Yáng Zhènníng) (born September 22, 1922) is a Chinese American physicist, who worked on statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. ... Max Ferdinand Perutz (May 19, 1914 - February 6, 2002) was an Austrian molecular biologist. ... This article is about the English composer named John Eccles, for the Australian Nobel Prize winner, see John Eccles. ... Charles Hard Townes (born July 28, American physicist and educator. ... Manfred Eigen (born May 9, 1927, Bochum) is a German biophysicist and a former director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. ... Sir George Porter (born 1920, died 2002) is a British chemist. ... Har Gobind Khorana (born January 9, 1922) is a molecular biologist. ... Marshall Nirenberg won a Nobel Prize in 1968 Marshall Warren Nirenberg (born April 10, 1927) was a U.S. biochemist and geneticist. ... Christian de Duve (born October 2, 1917) is a biochemist. ... David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist and a winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. ... Aage Niels Bohr (born in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 19, 1922) is the son of Margrethe and Niels Bohr. ... Prof. ... Paul Berg, born June 30, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, USA, is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. ... Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn (born April 20, 1918) is a Swedish physicist. ... Sune Karl Bergström (January 10, 1916 - August 15, 2004) was a Swedish biochemist. ... Carlo Rubbia Carlo Rubbia (born March 31, 1934) is an Italian physicist. ... Rita Levi-Montalcini (born April 22, 1909 in Turin) is an Italian-American neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of growth factors. ... John Charles Polanyi (born January 23, 1929) is a German/Canadian chemist. ... Jean-Marie Lehn (1939-) is a French chemist. ... For the former commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, see Joseph Philip Robert Murray. ... Gary Stanley Becker (born December 2, 1930) is an American economist. ... Paul J. Crutzen (December 3rd, 1933 - ) is a Dutch nobel prize winning atmospheric chemist. ... Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (born April 1, French physicist working at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, where he has also studied physics. ... Ahmed Hassan Zewail (Arabic: أحمد زويل) (born February 26, 1946) is an Egyptian chemist, and the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry. ... Agostino Gemelli (1878-1959) was an Italian physician, Franciscan friar and psychologist who was also the founder and chancellor of Catholic University at Milan (Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, literally Catholic University of the Sacred Heart at Milan) in 1921. ...

Goals and Hopes of the Academy

The goals and hopes of the Academy were expressed by Pope Pius XI in the Motu Proprio which brought about its re-foundation in 1936: Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May 31, 1857 - February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope and sovereign of Vatican City from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ...

"Amongst the many consolations with which divine Goodness has wished to make happy the years of our Pontificate, I am happy to place that of our having being able to see not a few of those who dedicate themselves to the studies of the sciences mature their attitude and their intellectual approach towards religion. Science, when it is real cognition, is never in contrast with the truth of the Christian faith. Indeed, as is well known to those who study the history of science, it must be recognized on the one hand that the Roman Pontiffs and the Catholic Church have always fostered the research of the learned in the experimental field as well, and on the other hand that such research has opened up the way to the defense of the deposit of supernatural truths entrusted to the Church....We promise again that it is our strongly-held intention, that the 'Pontifical Academicians' through their work and our Institution, work ever more and ever more effectively for the progress of the sciences. Of them we do not ask anything else, since in this praiseworthy intent and this noble work in that service in favor of the truth that we expect of them." (Pius XI)

Forty years later (10 November 1979), John Paul II once again emphasized the role and goals of the Academy, on the 100th anniversary (centenary) of the birth of Albert Einstein: Official papal image of John Paul II. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, né Karol Józef Wojtyła (born May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland), is the current Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Albert Einstein, by Yousuf Karsh Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist of Swiss and American citizenship, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. ...

"...the existence of this Pontifical Academy of Sciences, of which in its ancient ancestry Galileo was a member and of which today eminent scientists are members, without any form of ethnic or religious discrimination, is a visible sign, raised amongst the peoples of the world, of the profound harmony that can exist between the truths of science and the truths of faith.....The Church of Rome together with all the Churches spread throughout the world, attributes a great importance to the function of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The title of 'Pontifical' given to the Academy means, as you know, the interest and the commitment of the Church, in different forms from the ancient patronage, but no less profound and effective in character....How could the Church have lacked interest in the most noble of the occupations which are most strictly human -- the search for truth?"

"....Both believing scientists and non-believing scientists are involved in deciphering the palimpsest of nature which has been built in a rather complex way, where the traces of the different stages of the long evolution of the world have been covered over and mixed up. The believer, perhaps, has the advantage of knowing that the puzzle has a solution, that the underlying writing is in the final analysis the work of an intelligent being, and that thus the problem posed by nature has been posed to be solved and that its difficulty is without doubt proportionate to the present or future capacity of humanity. This, perhaps, will not give him new resources for the investigation engaged in. But it will contribute to maintaining him in that healthy optimism without which a sustained effort cannot be engaged in for long." (John Paul II)

At the time of the Pope's infamous October 1996 Statement on Evolution to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 26 of the 80 members (nearly one-third) of the Academy were holders of the Nobel Prize. Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution by natural selection. ... Sir Edward Appletons medal Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ...

External Links

• The Pontifical Academy of Science -- The official Vatican site
• Message to the Pontifical Academy of Science on Evolution by Pope John Paul II, 22 October 1996
• Based on the information from The Pontifical Academy of Sciences: A Historical Profile