National Academies, U.S.

The National Academies are a conglomerate of four nonprofit honorary societies of distinguished [Page 497]scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research and dedicated to the advancement of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. The first of those institutions was the National Academy of Sciences, established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. To keep pace with the growing role that science and technology would play in public life, the National Academies later also incorporated the National Research Council (established in 1916), the National Academy of Engineering (1964), and the Institute of Medicine (1970). The name National Academies now refers to these four institutions collectively. Because of the organization's stature, reports and other publications of the National Academies and its National Research ...