Who are we?

In a day and age of dramatic change, institutional uncertainty and disruption, we continue to ask ourselves, as a 100+ year old organization: "Why should the Pacific Division exist, and what role might we be uniquely positioned to play in advocating for science?" Further: "How could our annual meeting, as the principle activity organized by the Pacific Division, better reflect our goals and aspirations and importantly, increase our organization’s impact and value?"

As a division of AAAS, the largest poly-scientific organization in the world, one of our aspirations is clearly to help advance the objectives of our sponsoring organization. That said, we were born in 1912 and have operated since with a regional focus, explicitly including individuals representing many different types of backgrounds, professional status and educational institutions from those involved in traditional scientific research, to those whose primary focus is on undergraduate or K-12 education.

All considered and in brief, we characterize our organization's mission as:   

- Crossing Disciplines due to our its intrinsically multi- and inter-disciplinary nature, not only including borders between sciences, but also, for example, between science, art, culture, history and philosophy. 

- Science Policy  considering issues and subjects that reach beyond traditional disciplines and address more global questions that are challenging all of science and society.   

- Promoting encouraging and fostering Local Engagement in our meetings and our mission, and by so doing strengthen the efforts of local citizens and organizers concerned about issues that science can, in principle inform.

- and Empowering Students as part of our long seeded focus on student participation, support and advancement.