National Academy of Sciences

Frederick Seitz, head of the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois and the immediate past president of the American Physical Society, was elected president of the National Academy of Sciences during the Academy’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last April. The previous president of the Academy was Detlev W. Bronk, who took office in 1950. Dr. Bronk, who is president of the Rockefeller Institute, announced to the membership of the Academy some months prior to the annual meeting that he could not again make himself available for the post after having served for an unprecedented three terms in office. At that time Dr. Bronk was asked to serve as chairman of a committee to prepare for the one hundredth anniversary next year of the founding of the Academy by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Dr. Bronk was also asked to write a history of the Academy and to lead a drive for funds to provide for the construction of an auditorium and a new wing to the Academy building.