Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien
Motto	För efterkommande (For posterity)
Formation	2 June 1739
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Membership	470 Members 175 Foreign members
President	Dan Larhammar
Secretary General	Göran K. Hansson
Website	www.kva.se/en

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the royal academies of Sweden. It is an independent, non-governmental scientific organisation which takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

Its purpose is to;

• Att främja vetenskaperna och stärka deras inflytande i samhället
  (To promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society)

Every year the academy awards the Nobel Prizes in Physics and in Chemistry, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the Crafoord Prize, the Sjöberg Prize and several other prizes.

Prizes

Main building of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

International Prizes

• Nobel Prizes in Physics and in Chemistry
• Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
• Crafoord Prizes in astronomy and mathematics, geosciences, biosciences (with an emphasis on ecology), and polyarthritis (for example rheumatoid arthritis)
• Sjöberg Prize
• Rolf Schock Prizes in logic and philosophy
• Gregori Aminoff Prize in crystallography
• Tobias Prize

National prizes

• Göran Gustafsson Prize for research in mathematics, the natural sciences and medicine
• Söderberg Prize in economics or jurisprudence
• Ingvar Lindqvist Prizes for teachers in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics.
• Etc.

Members

The academy has elected about 1,700 Swedish and 1,200 foreign members since it was founded in 1739. Today the academy has about 470 Swedish and 175 foreign members which are divided into ten "classes", representing ten various scientific disciplines:

• Mathematics
• Astronomy and space science
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Geosciences
• Biosciences
• Medical sciences
• Engineering sciences
• Social sciences
• Humanities and for outstanding services to science

List of permanent secretaries

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The following persons have served as permanent secretaries of the academy:

• Anders Johan von Höpken, 1739–1740, 1740–1741
• Augustin Ehrensvärd, April – June 1740
• Jacob Faggot, 1741–1744
• Pehr Elvius, 1744–1749
• Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, 1749–1783
• Johan Carl Wilcke and Henrik Nicander, 1784–1796
• Daniel Melanderhjelm and Henrik Nicander, 1796–1803
• Jöns Svanberg and Carl Gustaf Sjöstén 1803–1808; Sjöstén was removed 1808 for negligence of his duties
• Jöns Svanberg, 1809–1811
• Olof Swartz, 1811–1818
• Jöns Jacob Berzelius, 1818–1848
• Peter Fredrik Wahlberg, 1848–1866
• Georg Lindhagen, 1866–1901
• Christopher Aurivillius, 1901–1923
• Henrik Gustaf Söderbaum, 1923–1933
• Henning Pleijel, 1933–1943
• Arne Westgren, 1943–1959
• Erik Rudberg, 1959–1972
• Carl Gustaf Bernhard, 1973–1981
• Tord Ganelius, 1981–1989
• Carl-Olof Jacobson, 1989–1997
• Erling Norrby, 1997 – 30 June 2003
• Gunnar Öquist, 1 July 2003 – 30 June 2010
• Staffan Normark, 1 July 2010 – 30 June 2015
• Göran K. Hansson, appointed from 1 July 2015

Publications

Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Academiens handlingar, volume XI (1750).

The transactions of the Academy (Vetenskapsakademiens handlingar) were published as its main series between 1739 and 1974. In parallel, other major series have appeared and gone:

• Öfversigt af Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens förhandlingar (1844–1903)
• Bihang till Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (1872–1902)
• Vetenskapsakademiens årsbok (1903–1969)

The academy started publishing annual reports in physics and chemistry (1826), technology (1827), botany (1831), and zoology (1832). These lasted into the 1860s, when they were replaced by the single Bihang series (meaning: supplement to the transactions). Starting in 1887, this series was once again split into four sections (afdelning), which in 1903 became independent scientific journals of their own, titled "Arkiv för..." (archive for...), among them

• Arkiv för matematik, astronomi och fysik (1903–1949).

Further restructuring of their topics occurred in 1949 and 1974.

Current publications

• Ambio (1972-)
• Acta Mathematica (1882-)
• Arkiv för matematik (1949- with this title; 1903-1949 also including physics and astronomy)
• Acta Zoologica (1920-)
• Levnadsteckningar över Vetenskapsakademiens ledamöter (1869-), biographies of deceased members
• Physica Scripta (1970-), jointly with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
• Porträttmatrikel (1971-), portraits of current members
• Zoologica Scripta (1972-), jointly with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

History

The academy was founded on 2 June 1739 by naturalist Carl Linnaeus, mercantilist Jonas Alströmer, mechanical engineer Mårten Triewald, civil servants Sten Carl Bielke and Carl Wilhelm Cederhielm, and statesman/author Anders Johan von Höpken.

The purpose of the academy was to focus on practically useful knowledge, and to publish in Swedish in order to widely disseminate the academy's findings. The academy was intended to be different from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, which had been founded in 1719 and published in Latin. The location close to the commercial activities in Sweden's capital (which unlike Uppsala did not have a university at this time) was also intentional. The academy was modeled after the Royal Society of London and Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris, France, which some of the founding members were familiar with.

See also

• Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

External links

• Official website
• Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences video site

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