Membership
There are three types of membership in the RAS: full members (academicians), corresponding members and foreign members. Academicians and corresponding members must be citizens of the Russian Federation when elected; however, some academicians and corresponding members had been elected before the collapse of the USSR and now are citizens of other countries. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions and election to membership is considered very prestigious.[2] As of 2005-2007 there are just under 500 full members of the academy and a similar number of corresponding members.
Structure
The RAS consists of nine specialized scientific branches, three territorial branches and 14 regional scientific centres. The Academy has numerous councils, committees and commissions, organized for different purposes.[3]
Territorial BranchesSiberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS)[4] The Siberian Branch was established in 1957, with Mikhail Lavrentyev as founding chairman.[5] Research centres are in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo, Tyumen and Omsk.[5] As of 2005, the Branch employed over 33,000 employees,[5] 58 of whom were members of the Academy.[5] Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (URAN) [4] The Ural Branch was established in 1932, with Aleksandr Fersman as its founding chairman. Research centres are in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Cheliabinsk, Izhevsk, Orenburg, Ufa and Syktyvkar. As of 2007, the Branch employed 3,600 scientists, 590 of whom were full professors, 31 full members and 58 corresponding members of the Academy. Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS)[4] The Far East Branch includes the Primorsky Scientific Center in Vladivostok, the Amur Scientific Center in Blagoveschensk, the Khabarovsk Scientific Center, the Sakhalin Scientific Center in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Kamchatka Scientific Center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and the North-Eastern Scientific Center in Magadan.[6]
Regional CentresKazan Science Centre Puschino Science Centre Samara Science Centre Saratov Science Centre Vladikavkaz Science Centre of RAN and Government of Northern Ossetia Dagestan Science Centre Kabardino-Balkarian Science Centre Karelian Science Centre Kola Science Centre Science Centre of RAN in Chernogovka St.Petersburg Science Centre Ufa Science Centre Southern Science Centre Troitsk Science Centre Perm Science Centre
InstitutionsThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of a large number of research institutions, including:
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics Central Economic Mathematical Institute CEMI Dorodnicyn Computing Centre Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology Institute of Archaeology Institute of Biological Instrumentation Institute of Gene Biology Institute of High Current Electronics Institute of Linguistics Institute of Philosophy Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics Institute of the U.S.A. and Canada (ISKRAN) Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) Institute of World Literature (Moscow) Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics Komarov Botanical Institute Laser and Information Technology Institute Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering Lebedev Physical Institute Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Chemistry Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics Paleontological Institute Program Systems Institute Prokhorov General Physics Institute Schmidt Institute of the Physics of the Earth Space Research Institute Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Special Astrophysical Observatory Steklov Institute of Mathematics Sukachev Institute of Forest Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry Member institutions are linked by a dedicated Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI). The RSSI, starting with just 3 members, now has 3100 members, including 57 of the largest research institutions.
Moscow University, St.Petersburg University, or Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, etc. do not belong to RAS (they belongs to Ministry of Education of Russian Federation), but the leading universities use many institutes of RAS (as well as many others institutions) as educational centers ("Phystech System").
AwardsThe Academy gives a number of different prizes, medals, and awards:
Demidov Prize Lomonosov Gold Medal Markov Prize Bogolyubov Gold Medal[7] Pushkin Prize
History
Foundation Original headquarters of the Imperial Academy of Sciences - the Kunstkammer in Saint Petersburg.The Academy was founded in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, inspired and advised by Gottfried Leibniz, and implemented in the Senate decree of January 28, 1724[1]. It was called Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences between 1724 and 1917. Those invited to work there included mathematicians Leonhard Euler, Christian Goldbach, Georg Bernhard Bilfinger, Nicholas and Daniel Bernoulli, botanist Johann Georg Gmelin, embryologists Caspar Friedrich Wolff, astronomer and geographer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, physicist Georg Wolfgang Kraft, and historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller.
Under the leadership of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova (1783-96), the Academy was engaged on compiling the huge Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language. Expeditions to explore remote parts of the country had Academy scientists as their leaders or most active participants. These included Vitus Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1733–43, and Peter Simon Pallas's expeditions to Siberia.
USSR Academy of SciencesIn December 1917, Sergei Fedorovich Oldenburg, a leading ethnographer and political activist in the Kadet party met with Lenin to discuss the future of the Academy. They agreed that the expertise of the Academy would be applied to addressing questions of state construction, in return the Soviet regime would give the Academy financial and political support. By early 1918 it was agreed that the Academy would report to the Department of the Mobilisation of Scientific Forces of the People's Commissariat of Enlightening which replaced the Provisional Government's Ministry of Education.
In 1925 the Soviet government recognized the Russian Academy of Sciences as the "highest all-Union scientific institution" and renamed it the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. However starting in 1928 the Politburo started to interfere in the affairs of the Academy. By the summer of 1929, Yuri Petrovich Figatner headed a special government commission to investigate the academy and purge it of "counter-revolutionaries" turning it into a Marxist-Leninist organisation. Figatner's commission originally included Oldenburg, but he was sacked for "obstructing the reconstruction of the Academy of Sciences. By the end of 1929 its had sacked 128 members of staff out of 960 with a further 520 supernumeraries from 830 also being dismissed. In t he following year over 100 people (mainly scholars and humanists, including many historians) were charged in whatis called the Academics' Case. Former Academicians such as G.S. Gabaev, A.A. Arnoldi, N.P. Antsiferov, had already been exiled or imprisoned, but were also put on trial. On 8 August 1931 the Collegium of Joint State Political Administration Board condemned 29 people, including S.V. Bakhrushin, V.N. Beneshevich, D.N. Egorov, Y.V. Gautier, N.V. Izmaylov, N.P. Likhachev, M.K. Lyubavsky, A.M. Mervart, Sergey Platonov, S.V. Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Tarle. In 1931 the Joint State Political Administration Board imposed another wave of punishments on research officers of various establishments of the Academy of Sciences, Russian Museum, Central Archives and others. This included A.A. Byalynitsky-Birulya, A.A. Dostoevsky, B.M. Engelgardt, N.S. Platonova, M.D. Priselkov, A.A. Putilov, S.V. Sigrist, F.F. Skribanovich, S.I. Tkhorzhevsky and A.I. Zaozersky). Some former Guards officers, who worked for the Academy of Sciences such as A.A. Kovanko and Y. A. Verzhbitsky, were executed by shooting. N.V. Raevsky, P.V. Wittenburg and D.N. Khalturin who had organised various expeditions, the priests A.V. Mitrotsky, M.V. Mitrotsky, and M.M. Girs (the church group), Professor E.B. Furman, Pastor A.F. Frishfeld (the German group) and F.I. Vityazev-Sedenko, S.S. Baranov-Galperson and E.G. Baranov-Galperson (the publishers group) were also punished[8].

Russian Science

Russian Academy of SciencesModern headquarters in Moscow.The Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian: Российская Академия Наук, Rossi'iskaya Akade'miya Nau'k, shortened to PAH, RAN) consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.
Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is incorporated as a civil, self-governed, non-commercial organization[1] chartered by the Russian Government. It combines members of RAS (see below) and scientists employed by institutions.