Office of Public Information and Communications Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 (212) 854-5573
Scientists and administrators at Columbia University will participate in a satellite teleconference April 15 on new recommendations for more stringent evaluation of science and technology funding in the federal budget.
Dr. Frank Press, former president of the National Academy of Sciences and science adviser to President Jimmy Carter, will present the findings of his report, "Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology." It was prepared for the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine in response to a Senate Appropriations Committee request.
A brief discussion by studio panelists will follow, and participants at remote sites will be able to comment by telephone or facsimile directly to Dr. Press and the panel. The interactive telecast is sponsored by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, and will originate from the studios of North Carolina State University.
The program can be viewed from 4:30 to 6 P.M. in Room 305, the Goodman Room, of Milbank Memorial Library in Russell Hall at Teachers College. Seating is limited. To reserve contact Chris Tucker in the Provost's Office at 854-2774 or by E-mail to: ckt4@columbia.edu.
Dr. Press, who holds a Columbia Ph.D. and taught geophysics at the University from 1949 to 1955, concludes in his report that existing procedures are inadequate to identify the total funds now being spent by the federal government on science and technology research. He believes that American leadership in science and technology can be maintained without significant new federal money, but that procedures to identify important new funding opportunities, and to weed out less important projects, must be instituted as part of the federal budgeting process.
"The allocation process must be disciplined to fund the most productive projects and people," Dr. Press writes in his opening statement.
The federal government should encourage, but not directly fund, the development of commercial technologies in the private sector, Dr. Press writes, except in rare instances. The science policy expert recommends that federal laboratories be required to focus narrowly on the needs of their sponsoring agencies and that they change in size and activities as their missions change.
The report is available at http://www.nas.edu/nap/online/fedfunds on the World Wide Web, and also appeared in the Winter 1995-96 Issues in Science and Technology. Comments on the report, which Sigma Xi is soliciting to help structure the discussion, can be sent to http://www.sigmaxi.org .
Dr. Press last year was the first recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Columbia chapter of Sigma Xi.
The studio panel will include Mary Anne Fox, professor of chemistry and vice president for research at the University of Texas at Austin, Ernest J. Moniz, associate director of the Office of Science and Technology in the Executive Office of the President, and a Congressional spokesman.
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