Dr. Joseph Bordogna
Deputy Director
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Coalition for Technology Partnerships
Science-Engineering-Technology Congressional Visits
Day
May 1, 2001
Good afternoon to all of you. I want to thank Taffy
- I've long been a fan of her leadership. I'm delighted
to be here today to talk about the National Science
Foundation's research and education priorities for
the coming fiscal year.
Let me begin by saying that your support for fundamental
research and education has a huge impact. It's one
of the reasons that U.S. science and engineering is
the most innovative and productive in the world. You
speak with a knowledgeable and credible voice about
the nation's research and education needs. I'm confident
that your ideas will resonate when you make the case
for these investments.
[1. Title
Slide]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
The National Science Foundation aims at nothing less
than U.S. world leadership in science, engineering,
and technology. That's what we're about, and our budget
priorities reflect that mission - in both research
and education and their integration.
All of us know that the competition is stiffer and
the stakes are higher than ever before in history.
Knowledge is becoming the most sought after commodity
in the world. We need to sustain the vitality of our
basic research enterprise, and we need to train the
talent we need to advance discovery and innovation.
These are key to economic and social prosperity.
Let me share how NSF's vision is expressed by its budget.
[2. NSF Budget:
Big Picture]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Here's the big picture. NSF is requesting a total of
$4.47 billion - that's $56 million more, or a 1.3-percent
increase, above FY 2001.
[3. NSF Budget:
by appropriation]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Funding levels for each of NSF's appropriation accounts
at the FY 2002 Request and FY 2001 Current Plan levels
are shown in this chart.
The highlight is the Education and Human Resources
(EHR) appropriation, which receives an 11% increase.
I'll move right to the top priorities in NSF's budget
request for FY 2002.
[4. Science
& Math Partnerships]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
At the center of NSF's budget request is an initial
$200 million dollar downpayment on a five year, $1
billion dollar investment in the nation's youngsters.
This will be used to strengthen and reform K-12 science
and math education.
We are pleased that the President has asked NSF to
lead the Math and Science Partnerships program as
part of the No Child Left Behind education initiative.
NSF will fund states and local school districts to
join with institutions of higher education.
We're asking scientists, mathematicians, and engineers
at universities and colleges to work with K-12 educators
to achieve some very ambitious goals. The Partnerships
program aims to strengthen math and science standards,
improve curricula and textbooks, and raise the quality
of teacher professional development.
But the program doesn't stop there. We hope to eliminate
the performance gap between majority and minority
students, and reach under-served schools and students
in creative ways.
In a similar vein, NSF's budget addresses another major
roadblock in developing a 21st century workforce:
the numbers.
[5. Ratio:
NS&T 1st degrees to 24-year-old population]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
While 1st degrees in engineering, the physical sciences,
and math and computer sciences are either static or
declining in the U.S., other nations are boosting
degrees in all these fields. A 24-year-old in Japan,
for example, is three times more likely to hold a
bachelor's degree in engineering than one in the U.S.
[6. percentage
change in # of grad students enrolled in U.S. S&E
programs]
Although graduate enrollments in these fields are increasing
overall, that's mainly the result of growing numbers
of students from abroad. U.S. graduate enrollment
is actually declining.
That shouldn't surprise us. A recent study found that
57 percent of bachelor's degree recipients did not
apply to science and engineering graduate programs
for financial reasons.
[7. Graduate
student stipends]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
The average stipend for graduate students in these
fields is half the average wage for those who start
working as soon as they receive their undergraduate
degrees, and of course, much less than the starting
salaries of baccalaureate engineers and scientists.
We need to remedy this situation to make graduate study
in science and engineering attractive vis-à-vis other
career opportunities. NSF is requesting $8 million
dollars to increase graduate stipends for Fellows
in a number of NSF programs. The stipends would increase
from $18,000 to $20,500.
That's a good beginning, but we want to see this figure
increase even more in the NEAR years ahead, say on
the order of $25 to $30 thousand dollars.
[8. Interdisciplinary
Mathematics]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Now, let me move on to NSF's $20 million dollar Interdisciplinary
Mathematics program. It's the centerpiece of our core
investments in FY 2002. The program aims to strengthen
fundamental research in mathematics, and at the same
time, to enhance its contributions to other fields.
By focusing these investments at the frontiers of
the biological, physical, engineering, and social
sciences, we can do both.
You know, I've heard that a good mathematician is sometimes
like a good film director. She works behind the scenes.
She gets the best performance possible from the scientists
and engineers, who always take center stage. Her creative
contribution is never adequately appreciated, and
is seldom understood. It's time to bring mathematics
into the limelight.
This investment will bring cutting-edge mathematics
to bear on problems in the physical biological, engineering,
and social sciences. It will help us develop models
of complex non-linear systems, and predict their behavior.
[9. Priority
Areas]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
We're also continuing to support key emerging capabilities.
These are priority areas that hold exceptional promise
to advance knowledge. The FY 2002 focuses on four
of these.
[10. Biocomplexity
in the Environment]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Let me begin with a priority area we call Biocomplexity
in the Environment. The term "biocomplexity" refers
to the dynamic web of relationships that arise when
living things at all levels - from cells to ecosystems
- interact with their environment, both natural and
human-made.
Recent advances have allowed us to investigate these
connections in a way that was never possible before.
We now have a better toolkit: real time sensors, powerful
computers, and genomics. These are opening up the
possibility of forecasting the outcomes of those interactions.
That's vital if we're going to understand the impact
of humans on the environment and vice versa. Advances
in this field can pave the way for the design of cleaner
and more efficient industrial processes, and new technologies
for waste avoidance.
[11. Information
Technology Research]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Another NSF priority area is Information Technology
Research. NSF funding will deepen fundamental research
on software, networking, scalability and communications
that will take us to the next generation of applications.
We'll also expand research in multidisciplinary areas,
where the power of IT can be put to use to make rapid
progress in advancing the frontiers of discovery.
The impact of IT on molecular biology and medicine
is a striking example of how this can work. Without
fundamental research in IT, the delineation of the
human genome, with all the promise that holds for
human health, would still be in our future instead
of our past.
[12. Nanoscale
Science & Engineering]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
That's a good lead-in to NSF's third priority area
- Nanoscale Science and Engineering. If IT can give
us the capability to do things three orders of magnitude
faster, nanotechnology will let us work on a scale
three orders of magnitude smaller.
Research in this priority area explores phenomena at
molecular and atomic scales. That's in a range where
nano-designed machines meet individual living cells,
and we can begin to envision targeted drug delivery
systems and electronic biosensors to detect cancer
in its earliest stages.
At the nanoscale, systems of atoms and molecules exhibit
novel properties - ones we can begin to exploit in
the design of new materials - for quantum computing,
for example, or in the development of materials for
tissues and organ implants, or entirely new paradigms
for manufacturing.
It's no wonder that this field of research is one of
the most competitive in the world. Although the U.S.
has substantially increased its overall investment
in nanotechnology, Asian and European investments
have kept pace. Current estimates put the U.S. share
of nanotechnology investment between 25 and 30 percent
of the world total. NSF's investment will strengthen
U.S. leadership and boost efforts to build a nanotech-ready
workforce.
[13. Learning
for the 21st Century]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
The final priority area I'll mention is a group of
related activities we call Learning for the 21st Century.
Today, science, engineering and technology workers
need skills that better suit the realities of an economy
and society based on knowledge and innovation.
Fortunately, there's been tremendous progress in research
in a range of fields collectively referred to as cognition:
cognitive neuroscience, computational linguistics,
human and computer interactions, and learning environments.
The time is ripe to bring these fields together to
develop a better understanding of how humans and other
species learn.
Now, let me conclude with some general comments about
how NSF hopes to accomplish all of this.
Support for fundamental research across all disciplines
remains one of NSF's unique and abiding strengths.
So too is the competitive, merit review process that
characterizes NSF's decision-making. It's a guarantee
that we bring a diversity of talent and perspectives
to the table. It helps us tap the best intellectual
insight.
I said before that the stakes are high. Although NSF
accounts for under 4 percent of the federal research
and development budget, NSF accounts for almost 50
percent of all non-medical basic research in our universities
and colleges. That means doing a lot with the resources
we have.
[14. Vision
statement]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
Let me close with our vision statement.
"Enabling the nation's future through discovery, learning
and innovation."
The boundaries that once separated discovery, learning,
and innovation are no longer as distinct as they once
were. There is more and more coupling among them,
and constant interaction.
Let me emphasize once again that an economy rooted
in science, engineering, and technology can't sustain
itself without a vibrant basic research enterprise
and a world class cadre of scientists and engineers.
Expanding the pool of science and engineering talent
requires giving youngsters every chance to succeed
and encouraging more of them to choose careers in
these fields.
It also means lifting the capabilities of our core
disciplines through our priority investments while
striking out in new directions at the frontiers of
research and education. And it means creating and
nurturing our partnerships among industry, academe,
and government.
I'll stop there, because that's where you come in.
Again, many thanks to Taffy and all of you for your
leadership.
[15. Where
Discoveries Begin]
(Use "back" to return to the text.)
|
