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EDITORIAL
The year 2015 saw an upsurge in the public sessions organized by the Académie des Sciences. These
sessions are traditionally held on Tuesday afternoons in the Great Hall of Sessions of the Institut de France. The
number and diversity of these events reveal how dynamic science is and how important a role the Académie plays
in imparting scientific knowledge as it progresses. It would be excessive to name all these sessions; it is worth noting,
yet, that such issues as the Ebola epidemic, energy transition, the security of computer systems and the evolution of
the human species hold the attention of internet users, who may find all the videos of these conferences on the website
of the Académie.
Out of an identical concern for the promotion of knowledge, the Académie chose to become more accessible to all its audience
through the launch, in July 2015, of its new website. Intuitive navigation has been made easier, articles enriched with meaningful
images, the website revamped for the internet users of today, whose attention is relentlessly solicited. In 2015, almost 200,000
unique visitors browsed our website. The arrival of the Académie on the social media platforms – Twitter in 2015, then Facebook and
YouTube in 2016 – stems from the very same desire to reach the widest audience, and especially the youngest generation.
The Académie, moreover, carried out numerous actions, thus maintaining its leadership at the international level, particularly drawing on
its involvement within the interacademic networks and over 50 cooperation agreements with foreign academies, including the agreement
of 29 May 2015 with the Chinese Academy of Engineering. We are also delighted by the installation of the Algerian Academy of Science and
Technology on 14 November 2015, the creation of which we had been fostering in recent years. In addition, our Académie continued acting
towards sub-Saharan Africa, in particular through the organization of a colloquium on “Chemistry and Natural Resources”, in close cooperation
with the young Académie des Sciences et des Arts du Bénin (Academy of Science and Arts of Benin), with which it has close ties.
Finally, the Académie continues playing an advisory role and, as such, may greet the French Prime Minister’s decision to create a
Conseil national consultatif pour la biosécurité
(National Advisory Council for Biosafety) in November 2015, a creation the Académie had
recommended as early as 2008. Furthermore, it also brought its contribution to the reflection on energy transition and published its report
on atmospheric ozone in October 2015.
The culminating point of the year 2015, and the prelude to 2016, occurred on 2 December 2015, when the illustrated book devoted to the
Académie was published by the Cherche Midi publishing house:
Une compagnie en son siècle – 350 ans de l’Académie des sciences.
It
was a solemn launch, as well as the official opening to the events that would delineate the year 2016 and celebrate the 350
th
anniversary
of our Académie. The reader shall find their detailed sequence in the next issue of
One year with the Académie des Sciences.
Jean-François Bach and Catherine Bréchignac
Secrétaires perpétuels of the Académie des Sciences
© DR
© DR