On Sunday 12 January 1936 Pope Pius XI inaugurated the academic year of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences – The New Lynxes, the 89th since the restoration of the Academy by Pius IX and the 333rd since the first foundation of the Academy of the Lynxes. The ceremony took place in the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican gardens where the Academy itself is located. Among those present were Cardinals Bisleti, Laurenti, Salotti, Canali, Mariani and Boetto, Prince Chigi, the Governor of Vatican City, a large representation of the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of the Secretariat of State, of the Sacred Congregations and Ecclesiastical Dicasteries; and several members of the Pontifical Academy with their new President, Fr. Agostino Gemelli OFM.
In the inaugural speech, Pope Pius XI mentioned the important reforms of the Academy following the requests for renewal made by Jesuit father Giuseppe Gianfranceschi, Physics Professor and Rector of the Gregorian University, who was the Academy’s President from 1921 to 1934, the year of his premature death.
On 28 October 1936, Pope Pius XI finally sanctioned the birth of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences with the Motu Proprio In multis solaciis.