About the AAAS Annual Meeting
Founded in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest multi-disciplinary science society, fulfilling its mission to advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people through a broad array of initiatives focused on communication, public engagement, education, scientific responsibility, public policy, and science diplomacy.
Each year, the community of leading scientists, educators, policymakers, and journalists gathers to discuss cutting-edge developments in science, technology, and policy. Next AAAS Annual Meeting will convene in Denver, CO, February 15-17. To advance toward Science Without Walls, the theme of the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting, we shall explore a wide range of problem areas, and aspirations, and proposals for addressing them. The meeting will include Scientific Sessions, Workshops, 10-minute Lightning Talks, E-poster Sessions, international Expo Hall, and more!
2024 Meeting theme: Science Without Walls
In an ideal world, powerful scientific discoveries would emerge from collaborations built on expertise that crosses disciplines, provoke audacious concepts, and drive impactful applications. Bold ideas would be sought, funded, and celebrated. Students and trainees of all backgrounds and life experiences would receive education that conveys the wonder of science and the power of evidence-based reasoning. Incentives and rewards during graduate and postdoctoral training, and throughout professional academic careers, would motivate and promote creative thinking and risk-taking. Our scientific culture would embrace diversity and those from underrepresented backgrounds, prioritizing the inclusion of a rich blend of perspectives that would drive innovation, and accelerate discovery and application.
Instead of this ideal, however, today’s scientific enterprise is fragmented by blockades large and small, intentional and inadvertent. Our science enterprise persists at a moment when the global community is confronted by existential challenges in health, energy, environment, food, and security. Those challenges will be met only by breakthrough scientific discoveries and coordinated, directed delivery of transformative technologies, unconstrained by conceptual, social, economic, or bureaucratic boundaries. Indeed, it is encouraging that despite the barriers, some revolutionary strategies and technologies that promise impacts in those challenge areas are on the horizon; we shall be stimulated in learning of some of those at this meeting. To advance toward Science Without Walls, the theme of the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting, we shall explore a wide range of problem areas, and aspirations, and proposals for addressing them.