An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life.

Accordingly, within systems such as the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the title grants privileges and administrative responsibilities for funding allocation and research priorities.

Historically, the meaning for the title of Academician follows the traditions of the two most successful early scientific societies: either the Royal Society, where it was an honorary recognition by an independent body of peer reviewers and was meant to distinguish a person, while giving relatively little formal power, or the model of the French Academy of Sciences, which was much closer integrated with the government, provided with more state funding as an organization, and where the title of Academician implied in a lot more rights when it came to decision making.

Being an academician in China is a top honour and title granted only to the nation's top scientists and engineers. Academicians are elected through either the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.^{[citation needed]}

The British honours "Fellow of the Royal Society" (FRS) or Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences can be considered rough equivalents. Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences was known as the Award of Academician until July 2014. Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK are recognized as academicians and members include Nobel Prize winners and the nation's top engineers and scientists. Recently, Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In the United States of America, academicians are elected members of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. Members include many Nobel Prize, Turing Awards, and Fields Medalists.^{[citation needed]}

Sweden does not use the Academician concept, but membership in learned societies are noted in the Swedish State Calendar. The Swedish Royal Academies are independent organizations, founded on Royal command, that act to promote the arts, culture, and science in Sweden. The Swedish Academy and Academy of Sciences who are responsible for the selection of Nobel Prize laureates in Literature, Physics, Chemistry, and the Prize in Economic Sciences. Also included in the Royal Academies are scientific societies that were granted Royal Charters. There are a few esteemed Swedish learned societies that has not sought Royal command, including the Society of Sciences in Lund.

Academician may also be a functional title and denote a full member of the National Academy of Sciences in those countries where the academy has a strong influence on national scientific life, particularly countries that were part of, or influenced by, the Soviet Union. In such countries, academician is used as an honorific title (like "Doctor", "Professor", etc.) when addressing or speaking about someone. Countries where the term academician is used in this way include the Russian Federation, China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.