The New York Academy of Sciences is an American nonprofit scientific organization with a paid membership; as of 2012, it had more than 25,000 members from 140 countries.

History

Founded in 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History of the City of New York, it became the third scientific society in the United States. From 1823 it published the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York.

In 1877 the Lyceum was renamed the “New York Academy of Sciences,” and the journal it published was also renamed “Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, late Lyceum of Natural History” and then “Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.” From 1881-1897 and from 1938-1983 the academy published the journal Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Members included at various times presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, as well as scientists Thomas Edison, Asa Gray, John Audubon, Alexander Bell, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, and Margaret Mead.

The president and executive director of the academy is Ellis Rubinstein, and the head of the board of governors is John Sexton.

Membership in the organization

Anyone can become a member of the academy if he or she pays the membership fee. According to the official website of the organization, the amount of admission fee for individual members for one year is $108 for U.S. residents, and $129 for others, two years – $196 and $232, three years – $273 and $324 respectively (for undergraduate and graduate students fees are much lower). There are also programs of professional membership and patron membership, the last – the most expensive, the cost of which for U.S. residents and foreigners is the same – $258, $443 and $618 for 1, 2 or 3 years, respectively. One of the privileges of permanent membership is a hand-drawn certificate of membership in the academy.