Franklin’s spirit of inquiry remains alive and well. The APS is guided by the belief that the pursuit of useful knowledge remains essential to our society and is inherently in the public interest.

Today, the Society honors distinguished scientists, humanists, social scientists, and leaders in civic and cultural affairs through elected Membership, and engages them through its annual Meetings. APS grants, fellowships, lectures, publications, and prizes also encourage groundbreaking research and discovery. The APS Library and Museum are dedicated to supporting scholarly research and sharing their rich collections with the public.

As a supporter of useful research and a forum for the free exchange of ideas, the APS will continue to engage the most important issues facing our society.

Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law and Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale Law School
President of the American Philosophical Society (2017–present)

Upon being elected an officer of the APS, Jefferson expressed the hope that circumstances would “enable me to contribute any thing worthy” to the Society. I certainly had the same wish in April 2017, when I followed in Jefferson’s footsteps and became the 37th President of the APS. Has anyone ever had a more daunting—and inspiring—role model?

Distinguished Scholar, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Lab

The APS has preserved this valuable weather data of air surface temperatures and barometric pressure from 1853 to 1855 in western Greenland. The data was an integral part of the Arctic expedition headed by explorer and surgeon Elisha Kent Kane.

Kane’s scientific data allows for comparisons with present-day temperatures for the Arctic region. Although Kane’s data is limited, it suggests a regional warming of about 5°C or 9°F over 164 years. This amount of regional warming is consistent with other field observations and computer climate model simulations that I have performed with the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, and Anthropology, and Curator Emeritus, Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan

Edward Drinker Cope was one of the most important paleontologists of the 19th century. He worked at Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences for several years. He also spent long summers in the American West collecting fossil mammals and dinosaurs, and wrote copiously on both.

Our understanding of the diversity and relationships of early Cenozoic mammals is built on a foundation of Cope’s research. “Cope’s Bible” is an enduring, six-inch-thick, thousand-page, richly illustrated volume on Vertebrata of the Tertiary Formations of the West. My leather-bound copy is a prized possession and I often pull it off the shelf when studying early mammals.

Founder and Chairwoman of United Therapeutics, Creator of SiriusXM Satellite Radio

Dr. Blumberg entered my life in 2002 as a member (and later Chairman) of the United Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board. We bonded over our mutual fascination with nature and technology, and co-chaired a series of Nanomedical Technology workshops.

Barry was always happy, but the happiest I saw him was when my daughter Jenesis taught him how to operate an avatar in virtual reality. He said it fulfilled his lifelong desire to fly like a bird.

I imbibed from Barry the basics of my mantra: Breathe Curiosity, Question Authority, Act Lovingly, and Do Practically. He ceaselessly wondered, challenged, helped, and did. 

Executive Officer, American Philosophical Society (2017–present); Vilas Research Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Like many other American institutions, the APS took far too long to recognize extraordinary achievement in historically marginalized groups like African Americans and women. By the time the APS elected Ralph Bunche in 1950, numerous African Americans had contributed to our common store of useful knowledge. It was our loss that we failed to recognize the importance of W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Booker T. Washington, Daniel Hale Williams, and many others. In recent years, the APS has more often elected Members who reflect the diversity of exceptional accomplishment in American society.

The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology; Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics, 2017

John Wheeler was one of the most insightful, creative, and inspirational physicists of the 20th century. Among others, he inspired Richard Feynman (who writes at length about this in his Nobel Lecture); Wheeler also inspired me and my colleagues in our work on black holes and gravitational waves (see my own Nobel Lecture). In the letter to Daniel Lipkin exhibited here, Wheeler asks about the physical natture and reality of wormholes in the structure of spacetime. My colleagues and I still struggle with this: see my book The Science of Interstellar.