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About the Society for Amateur Scientists
SAS Founder and Executive Director Dr. Shawn Carlson |
From the Executive Director: Let SAS Help You Get More From Your Passion for Science
I founded the Society for Amateur Scientists in 1994 to help ordinary people with a passion for science to take part in scientific adventures of all kinds. We educate, stimulate, and facilitate everyday people, often folks without any formal education in science as well as youngsters, to follow their interests in science as far as their time, talents and interest will take them. If you'd like to be part of a family of discoverers, then you've found your home. Your interest is the only entry card you'll ever need. Just present it at our door, and come on in.
SAS’s bi-weekly newsletter, The Citizen Scientist, is full of how-to science tips and is edited by Forrest Mims III, a world-class citizen scientist, science writer and electronics pioneer. We have an extensive archive of how-to articles online. We also offer discounts on many of the necessary materials of science, and, oftentimes, expert assistance and advice on your own research projects. We also offer you something that is very hard for most citizen scientists to find-- fellowship with like-minded people. By attending our annual conferences (our last conference was in Las Vegas, Nevada) you'll get to rub shoulders with some of the most outstanding citizen scientists from all over the world. You will be astonished by the range of research that citizen scientists are now doing, as well as by their talent, dedication and unrestrained passion for their work.
Our society spent its first decade struggling to support amateur scientists of all ages in all fields of science. We've overcome overwhelming odds just to still be here. As we move into our second decade, we have committed ourselves to expanding our services to adults while, at the same time, revolutionizing how science is taught to young people in the United States.
We already support younger members in several ways. For instance, we maintain an expert science faculty to answer questions from our junior scientists on any topic of science. You can find them at Scifair.org, the Internet's most useful and indeed most used Web site devoted to helping young people carry out their own research projects. Anyone can take advantage of this service, anytime and completely free of charge.
However, our hottest new project, one that many world-class educators now believe is going to revolutionize how science is taught, is called LABRats. Its goal is to link passionate science mentors with teenagers who share their passion for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. LABRats members will get a world-class science education culminating in original research that they will propose and carry out under the watchful eye of an experienced research mentor. If you're still in school, and you'd like to learn firsthand how to make your own scientific discoveries, then LABRats is being developed especially with you in mind. I wish there was a LABRats chapter ready for you to join today. Unfortunately, however, we're still developing the program. Still, we could use your help. You can learn more about what we're doing by linking to the LABRats Web site. If you sign up to our LABRats news group, we'll keep you abreast of all latest developments as we breath life into this exciting concept.
It wasn't all that long ago that all scientists were true amateurs, that is, true lovers of science. America was founded by such individuals as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush, who found time to contribute to scientific knowledge even while they were engaged in their titanic battle for liberty. You could say that, by reinvigorating ordinary citizens to make scientific discoveries, the Society for Amateur Scientists seeks to keep that common love of science alive by returning science to its democratic roots.
If that sounds like a good thing to do to you, then please join us by becoming a member today.
I'll see you inside…
Shawn Carlson, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Former Columnist, Scientific American magazine
MacArthur Fellow
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