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About the Israel Academy

Albert Einstein's Sculpture in the Academy's Building (Photo: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

Chartered by law in 1961, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in both the natural sciences and the humanities. The Academy membership consists of 148 of Israel's most distinguished scientists and scholars, who, with the help of the Academy's staff and committees, monitor and promote Israeli intellectual excellence, advise the government on scientific planning, fund and publish research of lasting merit, and maintain active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community.

As stated in the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Law, the goals of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities are:

To enlist as its members distinguished scholars and scientists resident in Israel

To cultivate and promote scholarly and scientific endeavor

To advise the government on activities relating to research and scientific planning of national significance

To maintain contact with parallel bodies abroad

To ensure the representation of Israeli scholarship and science at international institutions and conferences

To publish writings calculated to promote scholarship and science

To engage in any other activity intended to serve the aforesaid objectives.

The Israel Academy is divided into two sections, for the natural sciences and for the humanities & social sciences, which share equal responsibility in conducting the Academy's affairs. The Academy is administered by a Council consisting of the Academy's president, outgoing president (honorary member), vice president, the chairpersons of the Sciences and Humanities Sections, and the director general. The president is appointed by the president of the State, upon the recommendation of the Academy. The governing regulations of the Academy are self-determined, in consultation with the Ministry of Science.

The Academy founded and provided administrative support to the Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

Academy Members at the Forefront of Global Science

The status of The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities as the flagship organization of Israel’s scientific community is based, among other things, on the prestige of its members in the scientific world.

Each of the Academy's members has made a distinguished, lasting, and internationally esteemed contribution in their field to the advancement of human knowledge and to shaping the society and culture in which we live. The broad recognition of their work is reflected in their receipt of the most distinguished international prizes, such as the Nobel Prize, the Abel Prize, the Shaw Prize, the Turing Award, and the Fields Medal, and of Israel’s highest awards, such as the Israel Prize, the EMET Prize, and the Rothschild Prize.

Members of the Academy have also been honored by international research institutions, elected to membership in academies of science around the world, and received honorary degrees from prestigious universities.

Learn more about the Academy's story and its contributions to the advancement of science and knowledge in the exhibition: "A Gathering Place of Scholars: 60 Years of Science and Knowledge"

Watch a short documentary film about the founding of the Israel Academy (direction and production: Michal Weitz; editing and animation: Yoav Brill):

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About the Israel Academy