Founded in 1780, The purpose of the American Academy, according to its charter of incorporation, is "to promote and encourage the knowledge of the antiquities and the natural history of America; to determine the uses to which the various natural productions of the country may be applied; to promote and encourage medical discoveries, mathematical disquisitions, philosophical enquiries and experiments, astronomical, meteorological and geographical observations, and improvements in agriculture, arts, manufactures and commerce; and, in fine, to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."
Alina Payne was one of thirteen Harvard faculty to be elected to the Academy this year.
Alina Payne signs The Book during the induction ceremony on October 7 in Cambridge.