The NAE is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the rest of the National Academies the role of advising the federal government.

The National Academy of Sciences was created by an Act of Incorporation dated March 3, 1863, which was signed by then president of the United States Abraham Lincoln[1] with the purpose to "...investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art..."[1] No reference to engineering was in the original act, the first recognition of any engineering role was with the setup of the Academy's standing committees in 1899.

[1] At that time, there were six standing committees: (mathematics and astronomy; physics and engineering; chemistry; geology and paleontology; biology; and anthropology.

[1] The Academy was requested to investigate the great slide in Culebra Cut late in 1913 which ultimately delayed the opening of the Panama Canal by ten months.

[1] The report, submitted to President Wilson in November 1917, concluded that claims of repeated interruptions in canal traffic for years to come were unjustified.

Engineering societies responded to this crisis by offering technical services to the Federal government such as the Naval Consulting Board of 1915 and the Council of National Defense of 1916.

In short, "...the ascendancy of science in the public mind since World War I had been partly at the expense of the prestige of the engineering profession.

In 1967, the NAE formed an aeronautics and space engineering board to advise NASA and other Federal agencies chaired by Horton Guyford Stever.

[13] In 1995, the NAE along with the NAS and the National Academy of Medicine reported that the American system of doctoral education in science and engineering, while "...long a world model, should be reshaped to produce more 'versatile scientists,' rather than narrowly specialized researchers".

[55] The top achievement, electrification is essential for almost part of modern society and has "...literally lighted the world and impacted countless areas of daily life, including food production and processing, air conditioning and heating, refrigeration, entertainment, transportation, communication, health care, and computers.

[56] The NAE listing was also criticized for not recognizing the role physics played in laying the foundations for the engineering accomplishments such Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry for electrification.

[56] NAE's list ranked electronics based upon two inventions, the transistor and integrated circuits, even it neglected to mention their physicist inventors, John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, William B. Shockley, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

[60] Electrification as an example, resulting in fossil-fuel-burning power plants, airplanes and automobiles which emit greenhouse gases while electronics manufacturing leaves heavy-metal byproducts.

[60] The Grand Challenges confront wicked social issues that are inherently global in nature and require technological innovations and applications of systems thinking.

[62] The Academy introduced its "Grand Challenges for Engineering" project in 2007 with the commissioning of a blue-ribbon committee composed of leading technological thinkers from around the globe.

[63] The committee, led by former Secretary of Defense William Perry was charged with the task of identifying "..key engineering challenges for improving life in the 21st century.

"[63] NAE's intent was to develop a set of challenges of such importance that they warranted serious investment and if successful, would "lead to a marked improvement in our quality of life.

"[65] In February 2008, the committee announced 14 Engineering Grand Challenges fitting into four broad categories: energy, sustainability, and global climate change; medicine, health informatics and health care delivery systems; reducing our vulnerability to natural and human threats; and advancing the human spirit and capabilities.

[64] NAE noted that a number of engineering schools had developed coursework based upon Grand Challenge themes.

[68] With respect to the Grand Challenges, the NAE reframed its discussion from being device-centric to addressing complex or wicked social issues that cannot be solved by technology alone,[68] i.e. more devices.

"[68] One critical reaction to the NAE's challenges noted that engineers today are the "...unacknowledged legislators of the world... (and by)... designing and constructing new structures, processes, and products, they are influencing how we live as much as any laws enacted by politicians.

[70] In 2010, NAE developed a plan for preparing engineering students at the undergraduate academic degree level to practice in career fields that emerged as a result of the effort to answer the Grand Challenges.

The question for STEM educators was how to prepare K-12 students to participate in solving the wicked problems associated with the Grand Challenges.

[71] One response was to align STEM program theories of learning and International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA, formerly ITEA) Technological Literacy Standards with the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges in order to guide current and pending curriculum development.

[71] NAE's objective was also to inform instructional practices, particularly dealing with the connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

[74] The goal of the diversity office is to participate in studies addressing the issue of increasing and broadening a domestic talent pool.

The program will provide policy guidance to government, the private sector, and the public on ways to create a more environmentally sustainable future.

In addition, NAE has held a series of workshops titled News and Terrorism: Communicating in a Crisis, in which experts from the National Academies and elsewhere provide reporters, state and local public information officers, emergency managers, and representatives from the public sector with important information about weapons of mass destruction and their impact.

[94] Each year, the Gordon Prize awards $500,000 to the grantee, of which the recipient may personally use $250,000, and his or her institution receives $250,000 for the ongoing support of academic development.

[94] The Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize is an American national and international award established by the NAE in October 1999 in Athens, Ohio.