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a word from the President
T
he Académie des Sciences has unique assets to
achieve its tasks.
We have indeed lowered the mean age of our Company,
as 50% of our new members are now elected before the
age of 55. In 1995, the mean age of our members was
70.4 years; the current mean age of our new members
is now 63.5 years, which is below the age of retirement
from University or French public research institutions. As
such members are in active employment, they enable the
Académie to retain close connections with the life in the
laboratories.
As for the election process, it is resolutely multidisci-
plinary, thus avoiding appointments to be the results of
decisions made in very closed circles: elections within a
given section indeed involve members of other sections,
each discipline therefore debating, beyond its own pers-
pective, the merits of the different candidates. As regards
the elections that concern several disciplines, they are
held by multidisciplinary commissions.
The Académie’s contributions and communications are
meant to last. Its working groups, assisted by external
experts chosen for their skills, draw up high-quality docu-
ments in many areas, which are promptly disseminated
and read by the widest audience possible thanks to digital
information. Our time horizon, however, is not the instant
and its tyranny: we assume responsibility for the advice we
give, even years later, unlike numerous committees whose
evanescence lead to abide by the doxa of their time.
Collegiality, lastly, is vital to the Académie. Now more than
ever. For, in this rather troubled period, knowledge and
reason are too often replaced by emotions and superfi-
ciality. Accountable to the younger generations, the Aca-
démie is the active witness of the scientific approach,
against those who call for a return to the irrational as a
means of action in this world already complicated enough.
Bernard Meunier
President of the Académie des Sciences
sommaire
the académie: always in tune with its time
Soon 350 years old
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Adapting to the evolution of science
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Five missions supporting the progress of science
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encouraGinG the scientiFic community
colloquia by and for the scientific community
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Awards and medals
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the
Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des sciences
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PromotinG science teachinG
Promoting science among high school students
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museums with an educational purpose
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Supporting a transforming of teaching methods in haiti
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transmittinG KnowledGe
Public sessions, civic culture
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information resources specifically designed for the public
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Adding value to a scientific heritage
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the académie des sciences and key opinion leaders
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FosterinG international collaBoration
Playing an advisory role on a global scale
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Promoting science diplomacy
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Actions targeting development
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PerForminG the role oF an eXPert and adVisor
experts committees: to reflect and propose
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Advice notes and reports
57
© DR