The Mexican Academy of Sciences (Academia Mexicana de Ciencias) is a non-profit organization comprising over 1800 distinguished Mexican scientists, attached to various institutions in the country, as well as a number of eminent foreign colleagues, including various Nobel Prize winners. The organization, which encompasses exact and natural sciences as well as the social sciences and humanities, is founded on the belief that education, based on the truth of scientific knowledge, is the only means, in the short and long term, of achieving the development of the Mexican spirit and national sovereignty.
The Academia is an open forum of discussion, criticism and respectful confrontation of ideas and models, but above all, of tolerance and agreement. Its strength lies in the commitment and work of its members and, by its very nature, it constitutes an ideal sphere for the independent, multidisciplinary analysis of the country’s reality. Through its programs, the Academia undertakes its commitment to disseminating the knowledge and values of science, fostering improvements in the quality of education and raising the profile of science in the various spheres of national life.
various areas of science and to promote public recognition of their work
communities in other countries
According to AMC’s statutes, the Directive Council is responsible for supervising and managing all the Academia’s affairs, and implementing the decisions made at the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Assemblies. It consists of a president, a vice-president, two secretaries (one appointed by the incoming president and another by vote), and a treasurer who will serve on the board for two years. The vice-president will occupy the post of president during the following period.
To date, the Academia has a total of 1,847 researchers, working mostly in Mexico and occasionally abroad, who are affiliated to various institutions. These members are grouped, according to their specialty, in one of ten existing academic sections: agricultural sciences, astronomy, biology, social sciences and humanities, physics, geosciences, engineering, mathematics, medicine and chemistry. Each section has a coordinator responsible for liaising between members of the Academia and the Board of Directors. The Academia also has corresponding members in various countries, active researchers who have been recognized in their disciplines and made a significant contribution to the development of research in Mexico. At present there are 58 corresponding members, including nine Nobel Prize winners. The Academia has also expanded geographically to reinforce the work undertaken by its members at the country’s academic centers. In 1993, the Central Regional Section, comprising the states of Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro was established. The year 2000 saw the creation of Regional Centers in the Southeast (Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatán, known as Southeast 1), the Northwest (Baja California Sur, Baja California, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora), and the Northeast (Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas). The Southeast II Regional Section (Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz) was created in the year 2001.