Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (German: Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen)[1] is the second oldest of the seven academies of sciences in Germany. It has the task of promoting research under its own auspices and in collaboration with academics in and outside Germany. It has its seat in the university town of Göttingen.
History
The Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften ("Royal Society of Sciences") was founded in 1751 by King George II of Great Britain, who was also Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover), the German state in which Göttingen was located. The first president was the Swiss natural historian and poet Albrecht von Haller. It was renamed the "Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen" in 1939. Among the learned societies in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Göttingen academy is the second-oldest after the Halle-based Leopoldina (1652).
Organisation
The Academy is a Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts and has the task to serve academic research in its own work and in collaboration with researchers and institutions inside and outside Germany. Its members are divided into two classes, the Mathematical-Physical class and the Philological-Historical class. There are a maximum number of forty full members in each class and a maximum of one hundred corresponding members, elected from the rest of Germany and outside the country.
The review and literature journal Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen has been published by the Academy since 1753 and is the oldest academic journal still published in the German-language area. The Academy belongs to the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften).
Prizes
The Academy awards the following prizes:
Academy Prize for Biology (Akademie-Preis für Biologie)
Academy Prize for Chemistry (Akademie-Preis für Chemie)
Academy Prize for Physics (Akademie-Preis für Physik)
Grimm Brothers Medal (Brüder-Grimm-Medaille)
Gauss Visiting Professorship (Gauß-Professur der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen)
Dannie Heineman Prize (Dannie-Heineman-Preis)
Hans Janssen Prize (Hans-Janssen-Preis)
Hanns Lilje Prize (Hanns-Lilje-Preis)
Lichtenberg Medal (Lichtenberg-Medaille)
Sartorius Prize (Sartorius-Preis)
Wallstein Prize (Wallstein-Preis)
Wedekind Prize (Wedekind-Preis), the Academy Prize for History
Members
Paul Gerhard Schmidt