The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The Academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal Charter; as such it is an independent body, but has government endorsement. The Academy Secretariat is in Canberra, at the Shine Dome.
The objectives of the Academy are to promote science through a range of activities. It has defined four major program areas:
-
- recognition of outstanding contributions to science
- education and public awareness
- science policy
- international relations
Read more about Australian Academy Of Science: Origins, Fellows, Presidents, Awards, The Shine Dome, Other Learned Academies
Famous quotes containing the words australian, academy and/or science:
“Beyond the horizon, or even the knowledge, of the cities along the coast, a great, creative impulse is at work—the only thing, after all, that gives this continent meaning and a guarantee of the future. Every Australian ought to climb up here, once in a way, and glimpse the various, manifold life of which he is a part.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
““You are bothered, I suppose, by the idea that you can’t possibly believe in miracles and mysteries, and therefore can’t make a good wife for Hazard. You might just as well make yourself unhappy by doubting whether you would make a good wife to me because you can’t believe the first axiom in Euclid. There is no science which does not begin by requiring you to believe the incredible.””
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)