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SCIENCE POLICY
Future of Science R&D Agenda Focus of AAAS Policy Forum
Among the speakers at the 28th Annual AAAS Colloquium on Science and Policy in April are the new under secretary for science and technology in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as the computer scientist in charge of a Department of Defense project to develop ways to seek out terrorists by monitoring Internet traffic.
In talks during the course of the 2-day event (10 and 11 April), Charles McQueary of DHS and Robert Popp, deputy director of the DOE's Information
Awareness Office, will join Elias Zerhouni, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, to provide an in-depth look at the Bush Administration's priorities for funding science in 2004, and at the role it envisions for science in combating terrorism.
There is no single theme for this year's colloquium, to be held at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C., but Albert Teich, head of the AAAS Directorate for Science and Policy Programs, notes that it is hard to ignore the effects that the war on terror is having on the nation's scientific enterprise.
"It is changing the R&D priorities of the federal government and providing opportunities for universities, national laboratories, and industrial firms to contribute their talents to a key national goal," said Teich. "On the other hand, the President's proposed budget for FY 2004, released at the beginning of February, contains substantial increases for defense and homeland security, but very little new money for anything else."
Teich said that Marburger, the event's keynote speaker, will discuss the policy objectives underlying the president's 2004 budget request. Following Marburger's talk on the morning of 10 April, Kei Koizumi, director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program, will provide an analysis of the proposed budget and its impact on the agencies that fund R&D. Zerhouni, whose agency receives the bulk of nondefense R&D funds, will focus in his talk on the future of biomedical research in the United States over the next 10 years.
Another speaker, Shirley Ann Jackson, will give the William D. Carey Lecture: "Standing on the Knife Edge: The Leadership Imperative." Jackson is president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Istitute and president of AAAS in 2004.
More information on the 28th Annual AAAS Colloquium on Science and Policy is
available at www.aaas.org/spp/rd/colloqu.htm.
EDUCATION
Web-Based Tools for Biology Teachers
Throughout the academic world, teachers of graduate and undergraduate courses in biology have begun to sign on to BioSciEdNet (BEN), a AAAS-managed Web site that provides participants with a wealth of teaching tools, including access to the nation's most sophisticated digital libraries in the biological sciences.
"The Web is a useful tool, but it is so unregulated that it is difficult for most students to gauge the quality of the information they retrieve," said Roy D. Russ, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology at Mercer University School of Medicine. "With the BEN portal, I am confident that this will evolve into a user-friendly and accurate source for them to search."
The site, which was launched in June 2002 with funding from the National Science Foundation, represents a collaboration between AAAS and the 11 scientific organizations that provide core materials for the site.
More information is available at www.biosciednet.org.
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EDUCATION Julia A. James, a junior at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, is using computational chemistry to find out what factors make protease inhibitors most effective against a predominant strain of HIV. Her purpose is to develop a better drug. The work of the biochemistry student from Brooklyn got a boost during the summers of 2001 and 2002, when she took part in the Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program, which encourages undergraduate research that bridges the biological and chemical sciences. Since 1994, the program has funded 806 summer "research experiences." "It's thanks to the Merck/AAAS program that I was able to perform the research that has been so instrumental in my career," said James, who presented her work during a poster session in mid-February, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Denver. The public and private colleges and universities that receive the grants each year must meet certain criteria to compete. They must be located in the United States and Puerto Rico, offer an American Chemical Society-approved program in chemistry, and confer 10 or fewer graduate degrees annually in biology and chemistry combined. "Predominantly undergraduate institutions are known to be feeder schools for graduate education," said Susan Painter, who directs the 9-year-old program for Merck. "And the link between chemistry and biology is very important. This was a way to encourage departments of chemistry and biology to interact." The 3-year grant, worth $20,000 a year, supports about five summer research projects per school for students at as many as 45 institutions. "But the students are not the only ones to benefit," said Mary McCarthy Hintz, assistant professor of biochemistry at California State University, Sacramento, which received a grant in 2001. "The departments of chemistry and biology had not had a tradition of collaboration," Hintz said. "Now we have a cohort of biologists and chemists who are all about collaboration." More information on the Merck/AAAS Awards is available at www.merckaaasusrp.org. |
