The World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) is an international non-governmental scientific organization, an informal and non-official world network of individual fellows elected for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of natural and social sciences, arts and the humanities. The Academy has been striving to promote the growth of human knowledge, and to enhance public awareness of the social consequences and policy implications of that growth.
The idea of founding the Academy was voiced in the 1950s by leading scientists who were concerned about the potential for misuse of scientific discoveries. They included Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Joseph Rotblat who had been involved in the development of the atomic bomb; Bertrand Russell philosopher and pacifist; Joseph Needham, a co-founder of UNESCO; Lord Boyd Orr, the First Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization; George Brock Chisholm, the First Director General of the World Health Organization; John A. Fleming, former President of the International Council of Scientific Unions; as well as Hermann Joseph Muller, Harold C. Urey, Francis Perrin, Panchanan Maheshwari, Theodore Monod, Detlev Bronk, Harold Lasswell and other outstanding scholars and public figures. The Academy was organized in December, 1960 with the aim of creating an informal world association of the highest scientific and ethical norms and standards.
At present the Academy restricts its membership to 650 Fellows and Associate Fellows from all parts of the world. It has a secretariat in the U.S.A and has divisions in North America and South Eastern Europe. It holds conferences and seminars on a wide range of topics and issues relating to the spread and application of knowledge in such diverse fields as biotechnology, employment, environment, globalization, global security, nuclear disarmament, information revolution and social development. Election qualifications in the WAAS is similar to those of national academies.
In an effort to put new vigor and dynamism to the commitments of the founders, in 2005 WAAS formed a standing committee on Peace and Development to strengthen its efforts to bring about an abolition of the nuclear weapons. In achieving this goal, the Academy is also composed of leading politicians, statesmen and heads of various counties as well as Nobel Prize winners.
Election in the WAAS is considered as one of the highest honors that can be accorded a scientist.
The Academy is managed by a 19 member board of trustees with a president at the helm. The president since February 2008 is Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a professor of the University of Pittsburgh noted for his works in evolutionary biology and anthropology.
Past Presidents of the World Academy
- Lord John Boyd Orr
- Hugo Boyko
- Stuart Mudd
- Marion Mushkat
- Detlev Bronk
- Harold Lasswell
- Walter Isard
- Ronald St. John Macdonald
- Carl-Göran Hedén
- Harlan Cleveland
- Walter Truett Anderson
External links
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