For 100 years, this association has wanted to make Quebec a hub for science

ACFAS has been encouraging scientific careers among French-speaking Canadians since 1923. Today, it is one of the most important in the world.

“It is through research that we will end up existing as a people”, maintains in a 1934 speech the theologian and philosopher Ceslas Forest, one of the first presidents of the Association francophone pour le savoir, ACFAS, which celebrates its 100 years this year.

For this avant-garde nationalist – he supported women’s suffrage as early as 1920 – science was a way to take his place in the concert of nations and French Canadians had to impose themselves in chemistry, physics, medicine and natural sciences. .

It is in this spirit where science, politics and national identity converge that the French-Canadian Association for the Advancement of Science was born in 1923, whose name will be changed in 2019 to Association francophone pour le savoir, while keeping its abbreviation. . It must be said that at the beginning of the XX^e century, Quebecers are largely under-educated. Everything is to be done, the universities are still subjugated by the clergy and the faculties of science are nascent. We must breathe scientific culture into a largely illiterate population, create scholarship programs, found research institutes…

Record turnout

At the ACFAS convention, which opens this week in Montreal and where record attendance is expected, the idea of ​​coming together around a common language remains very present. “It was an idea of ​​Brother Marie-Victorin, who drew inspiration from the Associations for the Advancement of Science to promote scientific careers that existed elsewhere. ACFAS has aged better than others,” comments historian Yves Gingras, professor at UQAM, author of For the advancement of science: a history of ACFASwhich has just been reissued and expanded on the occasion of the centenary.

In English Canada, for example, there is no equivalent to this association, which will bring together at its congress nearly 6,000 participants from all over the Francophonie. “Even elsewhere in Europe, there is no comparable interdisciplinary grouping,” continues Sophie Montreuil, Director General of ACFAS.

Interdisciplinarity

What characterizes the congress program is the wide variety of scientific presentations. “It is very important for me to dive into this interdisciplinary universe where we can discover what is being done in public health and epidemiology, but also in anthropology, sociology, computer science, biology, etc.”, comments on the Log the D^D Caroline Quach-Trahn, President of the Congress.

One hundred years after the creation of ACFAS, Yves Gingras draws a positive balance sheet. “After a century of existence, we can undoubtedly affirm that ACFAS has seen its main objectives come true”, he writes in his book.

The dissemination of scientific culture, science education and science policies are more adequate and the scientific community is now dynamic.

♦ ACFAS was born in 1923, but the annual congress does not begin until 10 years later.

♦ At the first ACFAS congress, 84 speakers presented 164 scientific papers.

♦ At the centennial convention, which is being held from May 6 to 12, 9,000 delegates are expected. The number of colloquia jumped by about 50%. “It’s a record turnout,” says ACFAS Director General Sophie Montreuil.

♦ No financial crisis, war or recession can stop the annual activity… except the Covid-19 pandemic, which forces the organizers to cancel the event in 2020. The next two editions will take place by videoconference or in hybrid. The 2023 congress is the first to return mainly to the face-to-face.

Some associations for the advancement of science

It was in England, in 1831, that the first association for the advancement of science was created. In the following two decades, a dozen similar associations were born. Among the survivors, the most prestigious is the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal Science. Here are the different associations and their year of foundation.

• 1831 | British Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1839 | Societas Italiana per il Progresso della Scienza
• 1848 | American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1872 | French association for the Advancement of Science
• 1888 | Australian Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1902 | South African Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1912 | Indian Science Congress Association
• 1923 | French-Canadian Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1932 | Japanese Society for the promotion of Science
• 1933 | Argentina Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1947 | Chinese Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1947 | Pakistan Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1948 | Association Uruguaya para el Progreso de la Ciencia
• 1949 | Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência