2013 Annual Sackler Lecture.

Speaker: Daniel J. Kevles,

The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, such colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, and feature presen- tations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. These colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.

When the Academy was created, in 1863, its prime mov- ers envisioned that it would perform two principal functions: provide scientific advice to the federal gov- ernment and foster the development of high-quality sci- ence in the United States. But it was a private, selective institution of limited membership in a democracy that in its frequent raw moments resented self-selecting elites. The physicist Joseph Henry, who had opposed the Academy's creation, worried that it might be considered "at variance with our democratic institutions" and might become "perverted...to the support of partisan politics." Through much of its first century, the Academy sought to fulfill its two functions by diminishing the variance and serving the government in as much of an apolitical fashion as possible. Its efforts led to major reports on issues ranging from environmental to economic policy, some of which were of consequence, others of which misfired; to the establishment of the National Research Council for the mobilization of science in World War I; to the enlistment of industry and philanthropy in the development of American science and technology between the wars; and to a new era in the performance of its two main functions after 1940, in response to the demands of World War II and the Cold War.