Haley Oliver conducts research on food contamination, and applied for the AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellowship in part because she wants to the public to be able to make better decisions to protect themselves from foodborne illness, and be able to differentiate between food safety and food quality – a confusion she says results in a significant waste problem.

Universities, industry, and government must join to develop state-of-the-art “regulatory science” that can speed evaluation of new drugs and medical procedures and bring them more quickly to patients, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told a AAAS audience.