Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the National Academy of Sciences.

On March 3, 2013 the National Academy of Sciences will be 150 years old. Its creation in 1863 represents part of a dramatic series of federal actions that positioned the United States of America for a bright future. In 1862, Congress passed and President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, creating Land Grant Colleges, providing federal land grants for the use of the new colleges and allowing the land assets to be sold to support higher education. The Morrill Act created many universities, including the University of Illinois and the University of Nebraska, and it supported some preexisting colleges such as Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wisconsin. Private colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and briefly, Yale University, also gained support through the Morrill Act. The Act enabled a large increase in the capability of the United States to provide higher education for its population and for scientific and technical research in the coming generations. Also in 1862, Congress authorized the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. On January 1, 1863, while the United States was mired in its bitter Civil War, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Soon thereafter, President Lincoln and Congress took another major step to advance the young nation: The creation of the NAS in 1863, a bold and effective measure to elevate American science and to incorporate science into the future capabilities of the United States.∗ The NAS was given the charge to provide scientific analysis and advice to the United States government and to help to plan new federal agencies, the capabilities of which would be needed by the government. The NAS was created as a private, nonprofit, independent organization, and was explicitly given a mission to assist the government; it remains so today. It is remarkable that a government would create and respect such an external and independent organization. The adoption of the Morrill Act and the creation of the NAS were presciently aimed at a future in which science and technology would be essential to the development of the nation, a future in which higher education would enable this capability while enriching lives for its citizens. The adoption and implementation of these two brilliant concepts in the midst of the Civil War was a strong affirmation that a single nation would emerge after that war, and that this nation would have world-class ambitions. Today, the NAS continues to respond to its original charge, even as its mission has grown broader, commensurate with a sciencebased modern society. I summarize the missions of the NAS today. They are to: