The ten original members of its founding board were:*Geometers:**Joseph-Louis Lagrange;**Pierre-Simon Laplace;*Astronomers:**Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande;**Pierre Méchain;**Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre;**Dominique, comte de Cassini;*Jean-Charles de Borda, who carried out work related to the mechanics of fluids and precursor of Carnot because of his insights on thermodynamics;*Jean-Nicolas Buache, geographer;*Louis Antoine de Bougainville, celebrated navigator; and*Noël Simon Caroché, manufacturer of telescopes.
V tem času sta ji predsedovala François Jean Dominique Arago in Henri Poincaré.