News: AAAS News & Notes
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SCIENCE AND POLICY
In a Vulnerable World, Science Considers its Role
A recent AAAS report warns that the federal government's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks could lead to restrictions on the free exchange of information among scientists, and limit the universities' ability to draw from a pool of talented foreign students for their research needs.
"Academic institutions must walk a delicate line in responding to the federal call to action," said M. R. C. Greenwood, chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the contributors to Science and Technology in a Vulnerable World. "This publication will help universities define the issues and responsibilities that must be considered in deciding how to proceed.
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In AAAS's Science and Technology in a Vulnerable World, M. R. C. Greenwood, chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, calls on universities and government to work together to make "wise and fully informed choices." |
The papers by Greenwood and five other scholars that make up the report addressed a range of issues, in addition to the response of universities to terrorism--vulnerabilities in the public health and information systems; the changing relationship between science and the government; and how best to assess and communicate the risks of terrorism. The papers were first presented at the AAAS 27th Annual Colloquium on Science and Technology Policy in April 2002. Under normal circumstances, they would have been published as part of a larger yearbook at the end of the year, but the urgency of the situation has led the Association to move more quickly than usual on these papers.
Several of the report's contributors noted that the social sciences and the humanities will play a key role in addressing and explaining terrorism, and called for more funding for those disciplines. But the scientists most obviously affected by the nation's new priorities are those whose work concerns the threats to national security identified by the government: threats to transportation, energy, infrastructure, and information technology systems, and weapons that pose biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological dangers to the public. Other authors spoke of problems in the public health and information technology systems that make them vulnerable in the event of attacks that target either human beings or the nation's technological infrastructure.
"[T]he source of our vulnerability to terrorism is not the terrorists themselves. Our vulnerability is generated by our economic, social, and political systems," wrote Lewis M. Branscomb in his paper on "The Changing Relationship Between Science and Government Post-September 11." "Our S&T strategy to address this has to be very sophisticated. It has to use the very S&T that creates the vulnerabilities in order to lessen those vulnerabilities."
Limits on Dissemination
The issue of perhaps greatest concern to the university community is that of
possible restraints on the communication of scientific information. The government
is considering how best to prevent such information from falling into the wrong
hands, which has led to talk of limits on the dissemination of scientific research,
and a system that could block the participation of foreign students in certain
government-funded research projects.
"The danger of overreacting, I believe, is quite real, and in fact, I believe it is already happening," wrote Eugene B. Skolnikoff in his paper, "Research Universities and National Security: Can Traditional Values Survive?" "It is imperative that the universities understand what the issues are, how they believe they should respond to the issues, how far they should go in accepting certain restrictions, and how they should work with the government in working that out."
Anyone interested in ordering the report, scheduled for release in mid-July, will find a form on the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program Web site, www.aaas.org/spp/rd/pubs.htm.
EDUCATION
New Partners for ENTRY POINT! Program
Michele Emmi, a junior at the State University of New York at Cobleskill, says her biggest barriers have been self-imposed.
"I had to stop denying that I had a hearing problem and do something about it, stop taking no for an answer, and start asking for and accepting help when I needed it."
As a young information science student with a disability, Emmi got some help recently from a AAAS internship program called ENTRY POINT!, but it was her skills and experience that made her an attractive candidate for a summer internship at Texas Instruments in Dallas, TX.
"We are always looking for ways to increase our talent base," says Diana Johnson, a staffing manager at Texas Instruments, which produces digital signal processing and analog technologies. "One of the ways we do that is by seeking out people with physical challenges, and ENTRY POINT! helped us identify some terrific candidates."
This is the first year the Dallas-based company has participated in AAAS's seven-year-old internship program for young scientists and engineers with disabilities. Texas Instruments joins JPMorganChase, a financial services company that is also just starting in the program, along with IBM and NASA, ENTRY POINT!'s traditional partners. This year, the internship program has placed 49 college and graduate students in jobs in computer science, space science, and engineering.
JPMorganChase's Amy Downey, vice president in investment bank training, says that her company might not advertise regularly for scientists and engineers, but she points out that interns Jerry Robinson and Felipe Hernandez have skills that make them ideal for jobs that are highly technical and quantitative.
"As a company, we have learned that there is a huge population of outstanding students with disabilities who may feel that the financial industry is not a good choice for them," Downey says. "We are hoping that the success of this summer's efforts will help to encourage students to apply for positions at our firm and the financial industry in general."
Both the JPMorganChase interns have cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects movement, but Downey says her company has adapted easily. "We have had no trouble adjusting to the needs of the interns. The ENTRY POINT! management team has helped us through every step in the process, so we were ready for their arrival."
More information on the ENTRY POINT! program is available at the following address: www.entrypoint.org.
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Shana Matthews, 16, who met Dolly, the cloned sheep, when she last went abroad |
INTERNATIONAL
Camp in South Korea for U.S. High Schoolers
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Organization, and the Korea Science Foundation (KSF), AAAS is sending a group of 21 Americans students for 2 weeks of summer science camp in Taejeon, South Korea, 3 hours outside Seoul.
Among them will be Shana Matthews, 16, who met Dolly, the cloned sheep, when she last went abroad--the award for a winning essay in a competition for the 2000 Travel Channel Dream Science Award.
"I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new people, and to hearing the scientists' talks," said Shana, who lives in Palm Bay, Florida, and is interested in biochemistry, medicine, and microbiology.
At the Korea-U.S. Science and Engineering Summer Camp, Shana and her American colleagues will join 28 South Korean high school students for activities designed in cooperation with science education experts at AAAS, NSF, and KSF. The young people will participate in research projects at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the premier scientific institution in Taejeon, where they will be staying.
The students also will hear lectures by world-class scientists and engineers as part of the program, whose purpose is to provide the South Korean and U.S. children with hands-on training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"We want to encourage these young people to continue in the fields of science and technology, and to gain an international perspective," said AAAS's Suteera Nagavajara, who helped to organize the summer program as part of the Association's Pacific Rim Initiative.
Korea's interest in the camp is partly in response to a decrease in the number of high school students interested in studying science and engineering, says the Korea Science Foundation's Eun-Ju Kim, assistant director for program development.
"This is recently emerging as a serious problem for the future development of science and technology in Korea, as well as for the provision of S&T manpower," Kim said. "Under these circumstances, our Korea Science Foundation and AAAS agreed to host an international science camp which is interesting as well as educational...We know AAAS has ample experience in this field and want to learn their know-how."
The American students will bring with them seven chaperones--a mixture of graduate students and science educators from across the country. John McConnell, 71, a retired physicist who once worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, wants to "gain new ideas, concepts and insights into science," which he will apply in his mentoring activities and the workshops he leads for science teachers.
"I believe it will be an awesome experience to exchange ideas, meet new people, and be exposed to the science work being done in South Korea," McConnell wrote in an e-mail from his home in Grand Junction, CO. "It will give a new vision as to what can be done in an international science exchange program."
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ELECTIONS AAAS Annual Election: Preliminary Announcement The 2002 AAAS election of general and section officers will be held in September. All members will receive a ballot for election of the president-elect, members of the Board of Directors, and members of the Committee on Nominations. Members registered in one to three sections will receive ballots for election of the chair-elect, member-at-large of the Section Committee, and members of the Electorate Nominating Committee for each section. Members enrolled in the following sections will also elect Council Delegates: Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources; Engineering; History and Philosophy of Science; Industrial Science and Technology; Medical Sciences; Psychology; and Social, Economic, and Political Sciences. Candidates for all offices are listed below. Additional names may be placed in nomination for any office by petition submitted to the Chief Executive Officer no later than 12 August. Petitions nominating candidates for president-elect, members of the Board, or members of the Committee on Nominations must bear the signatures of at least 100 members of the Association. Petitions nominating candidates for any section office must bear the signatures of at least 50 members of the section. A petition to place an additional name in nomination for any office must be accompanied by the nominee's curriculum vitae and statement of acceptance of nomination. Biographical information on the following candidates will be enclosed with the ballots mailed to members in September.
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SLATE OF CANDIDATES |
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General Election |
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President-Elect: Shirley Ann Jackson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Harold T. Shapiro, Princeton Univ. Board of Directors: Rosina M. Bierbaum, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Queta Bond, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Research Triangle Park, NC; Paul G. Richards, Columbia Univ.; Peter I. Stang, Univ. of Utah Committee on Nominations: Wendy Baldwin, National Institutes of
Health; Eugene H. Cota-Robles, Edmonds, WA; David A. Hamburg, Cornell
Univ., NYC; Michael I. Posner, Univ. of Oregon; Stanley B. Prusiner, Univ.
of California, San Francisco; James A. Spudich, |
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Section Elections |
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Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources
Anthropology
Astronomy
Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences
Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences
Education
Engineering
General Interest in Science and Engineering
Geology and Geography
History and Philosophy of Science
Industrial Science and Technology
Information, Computing,and Communication
Linguistics and Language Science
Mathematics
Medical Sciences
Neuroscience
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Physics
Psychology
Social, Economic, and Political Sciences
Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering
Statistics
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