The International Academy of Sciences San Marino (Esperanto: Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino, AIS) was a scientific association. It was established in 1983 and had its first convention, SUS 1, around New Year 1984 in the City of San Marino.[1] After the Sammarinese skeleton law on higher education had been passed the academy was officially founded on 13 September 1985,[2] in the presence of the Captains-Regent. Its name uses the constructedinternational auxiliary languageEsperanto.
The association was dissolved at the end of 2020.[3]
The position of the object of scientific research in Karl Popper's "three worlds": the outer world as perceived sensually, the mental world and the world of abstractions.
Each faculty was headed by a dean and is also further divided into three or four departments, each with their own head. Within the Scientific Sector there was a hierarchy of contributors.[4]
Level of Membership
Title
Full Members (MdAIS)
Professors in ordinary (OProf)
Associated Members (AMdAIS)
Associated professors (AProf) and the independent lecturers (PDoc)
Adjuncts (AdAIS)
Associated lecturers (ADoc) or scientific assistants (ASci)
The AIS was based on three principles that its members see insufficiently supported in other universities:
The absence of any cultural and linguistic bias not only in scientific content but also in the teaching of this content. In order to achieve this goal as far as possible the AIS held its conventions and summer schools in a neutral language; in its case, Esperanto.[6] Students would write their thesis in two parallel languages: Esperanto and a second language of their choice (usually their native language). Research papers, too, were often written in two languages to reduce influence of language on the paper's logic.
Studying in several places. Students were encouraged to spend part of their studies abroad, or at least at an AIS summer school, so as to get in contact with other cultures.
Interdisciplinarity, intense contact and scientific exchange between the faculties and scientific branches. To achieve this, other faculties were required to be represented in examination committees, and students got maximum freedom in choosing their minor.
In 2006 the AIS consisted of about 250 scientists, among them a little fewer than 50 full members, including co-founder Reinhard Selten.
Some 300 scientists contributed to the AIS as members of the "International Scientific College" (Internacia Scienca Kolegio, ISK).[7] They were not active in teaching for the AIS but were available for opinions on theses and similar tasks. Knowledge of Esperanto was a precondition for membership in the ISK (as well as the AIS).
A notable rector was Fabrizio Angelo Pennacchietti, an Italian orientalist who graduated from La Sapienza.
^Program of SUS 1 in: Brigitte Frank-Böhringer, Ekesto kaj celoj de la Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj, Dortmund, verlag modernes lernen, 1985, p. 74–79.
^H. Frank: Noto pri proponita sciencoklasigo por strukturigi sciencan akademion. In: Brigitte Frank-Böhringer, loc. cit., p. 23.
^AIS statute, art. 4. Published in: R. Fössmeier, H. Frank: AIS, La Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj San Marino / Die Internationale Akademie der Wissenschaften San Marino. Berlin, Institut für Kybernetik, 2000, p. 197–200
