The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ) consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such as libraries, publishing units, and hospitals. Peter the Great established the academy (then the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) in 1724 with guidance from Gottfried Leibniz.
From its establishment, the academy benefited from a slate of foreign scholars as professors; the academy then gained its first clear set of goals from the 1747 Charter. The academy functioned as a university and research center throughout the mid-18th century until the university was dissolved, leaving research as the main pillar of the institution. The rest of the 18th century continuing on through the 19th century consisted of many published academic works from Academy scholars and a few Academy name changes, ending as The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences right before the Soviet period.
Now headquartered in Moscow, the academy (RAS) is a non-profit organization established in the form of a federal state budgetary institutionGeneral information about the Academy. . chartered by the Government of Russia. In 2013, the Russian government restructured RAS, assigning control of its property and research institutes to a new government agency headed by Mikhail Kotyukov. , the academy included 1,008 institutions and other units;Official list of units under jurisdiction of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (these are units of RAS), 27 October 2017, in Russian. in total, about 125,000 people were employed of whom 47,000 were scientific researchers.Report of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (number of employees: page 8), 20 March 2017, .
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 were elected before the collapse of the USSR and are now citizens of other countries. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions – election to membership is considered very prestigious.Academy membership (in Russian)
In the years 2005–2012, the academy had approximately 500 full and 700 corresponding members. In 2013, after the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences became incorporated into the RAS, a number of the RAS members accordingly increased. The last elections to the renewed Russian Academy of Sciences were organized on May 26–30, 2025.
As of January 2, 2026, the academy had 1960 living Russian members (full: 841, corresponding: 1119) and about 445 foreign members. Since 2015, the academy also awards, on a competitive basis, the honorary scientific rank of a RAS Professor to the top-level researchers with Russian citizenship; there are 797 scientists with this rank. RAS professorship is not a membership type but its holders are considered as possible candidates for membership; some professors became members already in 2016, 2019, 2022 or 2025 and are henceforth titled "RAS professor, corresponding member of the RAS" (188 scientists) or even "RAS professor, academician of the RAS" (31 scientists).
Present structure The Academy is headquartered in Moscow at the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences (built between 1967 and 1990).
The RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, four territorial branches and 15 regional scientific centers. The system of scientific divisions will soon be changed by splitting or fusion of the existing ones. The academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes.Academy structure (in Russian)
Territorial branches Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS)
The Siberian Branch was established in 1957, with Mikhail Lavrentyev as founding chairman. Research centers are in Novosibirsk (Akademgorodok), Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo, Tyumen and Omsk. The Branch employes over 12,500 scientific researchers, 199 of whom are now members of the Academy (126 full + 73 corresponding).
Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS)
The Ural Branch was established in 1932, with Alexander Fersman as its founding chairman. Research centers are in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Cheliabinsk, Izhevsk, Orenburg, Ufa and Syktyvkar. Presently, 113 Ural scientists were members of the Academy (38 full + 75 corresponding).
St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPbB RAS)
The St. Petersburg Branch was established in 2023. As of September 1, 2026, 179 scientists from St. Petersburg were members of the Academy (67 full + 112 corresponding).
Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS)
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, the North-Eastern Scientific Center in Magadan, the Far East Regional Agriculture Center in Ussuriysk and several Medical institutions. There are 71 Academy members in the Branch (24 full + 47 corresponding).
Regional centers
Kazan Scientific Center
Saratov Scientific Center Vladikavkaz Scientific Center of the RAS and the Government of the Republic Alania – Northern Ossetia
Karelian Research Centre of RAS
Nizhny Novgorod Center Scientific Center of the RAS in Chernogolovka
Ufa Scientific Center Southern Scientific Center Troitsk Scientific Center
Institutions
The Russian Academy of Sciences comprises a large number of research institutions, including:
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics Central Economic Mathematical Institute CEMI Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology Institute for Medical Science (Russia) Institute for African Studies (Moscow) Institute of Far Eastern Studies Institute for Economic Strategies (Moscow) Institute of Geography Institute for the History of Material Culture (St Petersburg) Institute of Archaeology (Moscow) Institute for Physics of Microstructures Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Spectroscopy Institute for System Programming Institute of Applied Physics Institute of Cell Biophysics Institute of Biological Instrumentation Institute of Biomedical Problems Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (Novosibirsk) Institute of Ecology and Evolution Institute of Economy (RAS) Institute of Human Brain (St.-Petersburg) Institute of Gene Biology Institute of Silicate Chemistry Institute of High Current Electronics Institute of Latin American Studies (Moscow) Institute of Linguistics (Moscow) Institute for Linguistic Studies (Saint Petersburg) Institute of Oriental Studies (Moscow) Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Saint Petersburg) Institute of Philosophy Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics Institute of Solid State Physics Institute of State and Law Institute of the US 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 Komi Science Centre Kutateladze Institute for Thermal Physics Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics Laser and Information Technology Institute Lebedev Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering Lebedev Physical Institute N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology A.N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds Northeast Science Station Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics Paleontological Institute Program Systems Institute
Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN)
Space Research Institute , which has an artificial climate station called "biotron" Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS Special Astrophysical Observatory State Public Scientific & Technological Library Steklov Institute of Mathematics St. Petersburg Department of Steklov Institute of Mathematics Sukachev Institute of Forest Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry Vingoradov Russian Language Institute Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry Zoological Institute
Member institutions are linked via a dedicated Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI). Started with just three members, The RSSI now has 3,100 members, including 57 from the largest research institutions. Russian universities and technical institutes are not under the supervision of the RAS (they are subordinated to the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation), but a number of leading universities, such as Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, Novosibirsk State University, and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, make use of the staff and facilities of many institutes of the RAS (as well as of other research institutions); the MIPT faculty refers to this arrangement as the "Phystech System".
From 1933 to 1992, the main scientific journal of the Soviet Academy of Sciences was the Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences (); after 1992, it became simply Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (). The academy is also increasing its presence in the educational area. In 1990, the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded, a specialized university intended to provide extensive opportunities for students to choose an academic path.
Awards
The academy gives out a number of different prizes, medals and awards among which:
Lomonosov Gold Medal Landau Gold Medal Kurchatov Medal Demidov Prize Lobachevsky Prize Kovalevskaya Prize Pushkin Prize Lebedev Prize Markov Prize Bogolyubov Medal
History
In the Russian Empire
Creation of the Academy
The academy was a culmination of Emperor Peter the Great's inspiration from his tours to Western Europe and its higher education centers along with the beginning of his correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz, a philosopher, mathematician, and diplomat. Peter's Western European travels introduced him to the new inventions and ideas of the Enlightenment period. Leibniz was attracted to Peter's desire to promote education and science in Russia through modernization of the academic system as he had seen in Western Europe, although he could not get a meeting with Peter during Peter's first European tour. Leibniz did, however, begin correspondence with Peter's advisors where he discussed different plans to achieve the westernization of Russia. Leibniz suggested an education reform which divided schools, universities, and academies, as well as creating new academies and schools. Also, Leibniz suggested creating an arts and sciences institution with faculty consisting of leading foreign scholars.