| |
What’s Ahead
 |
| Harriet Kung, deputy director for science programs in the DOE Office of Science, represented the office at a recent House Science Committee hearing. Following a reorganization taking effect this week, she is now the office’s highest-ranking civil servant alongside Juston Fontaine, deputy director for operations. (Image credit – House Science Committee) |
DOE Office of Science Reorganizes Management Structure
The Department of Energy Office of Science, the largest federal funder of fundamental physical sciences research, implemented a reorganization effective April 9 that eliminates the role of principal deputy director, previously its top civil service position. The department created the role three years ago and the only person to hold it in that time was Steve Binkley, who departed in January to take up a position in DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Before his elevation to principal deputy, Binkley had served as the office’s deputy director for science programs and was its acting director for extended periods during the Trump and Biden administrations. Units reporting to the principal deputy director have been distributed between the Office of Science’s two current deputy directors, who remain in place: Deputy Director for Field Operations Juston Fontaine, with the new title deputy director for operations, and Deputy Director for Science Programs Harriet Kung. Updated organizational charts are available here. Notable shifts include the creation of an Office of Equity and Workforce Development, temporarily led by Kung, that encompasses two existing offices: the Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists and the Office of Scientific Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The Isotope R&D and Production program, which was once part of the Nuclear Physics program and had been under the principal deputy director, is now within the operations portfolio, while the Accelerator R&D and Production program is now within the science programs portfolio.
NSF to Discuss Antarctic Harassment, Ocean Drill Ship Sunset
The National Science Foundation’s Geosciences and Polar Programs advisory committees are meeting this week and holding a joint session on Thursday. NSF recently announced it will merge the committees on July 1 to consolidate advice across NSF’s geoscience activities and “focus on Earth as an interactive system.” Thursday’s joint session will address the merger and feature an update on the agency’s efforts to address widespread sexual assault and harassment at Antarctic facilities it funds, including a new crisis helpline. The Polar Programs committee will separately discuss the physical qualification requirements for deployment to Antarctica, which some researchers have argued are overly restrictive and discriminatory. On Friday, the Geosciences Committee will discuss NSF’s recent decision to end its support for the JOIDES Resolution ocean-drilling research ship due to increasing operating costs. NSF currently pays about $48 million of the vessel’s $72 million annual operating budget and the agency stated that international partners were unwilling to sufficiently increase their contributions.
National Spectrum Management Strategy Under Development
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is holding a listening session on Wednesday to inform the development of a national strategy for balancing the needs of various users of the electromagnetic spectrum. The event follows a listening session held last month in Washington, D.C. and is being hosted by the SpectrumX center at the University of Notre Dame, which the National Science Foundation launched in 2021 to research new methods of sharing spectrum in increasingly congested environments. Science agencies have repeatedly protested the Federal Communications Commission’s allocations of certain spectrum bands in recent years, arguing the telecommunications equipment that will use the bands could interfere with sensitive instruments that use nearby bandwidths for purposes such as weather monitoring. Separately, from April 24 to 28 NSF is hosting its first-ever “Spectrum Week,” a series of research and policy discussions at its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.
Physicists Meet in Minneapolis for APS April Meeting
FYI Seeks Volunteers to Test New Website
FYI has been working on an update to its website and major improvements to our policy tracking resources. We are looking for volunteers to preview the site next week and provide feedback prior to its launch later this year. Sign up here.
|
|
In Case You Missed It
 |
| President Biden’s science adviser Arati Prabhakar, left, speaks at an April 4 meeting of the president’s science advisory council. (Image credit – The White House) |
PCAST Briefs Biden on AI Risks and Opportunities
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology met privately with President Biden last week to discuss “the opportunities and the risks of artificial intelligence,” according to brief public remarks Biden delivered prior to the event. Biden also highlighted the blueprint for an “AI Bill of Rights” the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued last year, proposing ways to ensure AI technologies do not compromise civil rights or democratic values. OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar, who co-chairs PCAST, elaborated on the administration’s approach to AI in a speech at the Summit for Democracy Biden convened on March 30, where she announced the launch of a Trustworthy and Responsible Artificial Intelligence Resource Center that builds on the AI Risk Management Framework the National Institute of Standards and Technology released early this year. She also said the administration is aiming to create a National AI Research Resource that would provide shared computational resources and data sets to AI researchers. “Today, leading-edge AI research and development is being driven by deep-pocketed companies. We need AI to do much more than just serve business interests. We need applications that will also serve the public good,” Prabhakar said.
DOD Elevates Defense Innovation Unit, Appoints New Director
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced last week that he is elevating the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) so that it reports directly to him and that it will now be led by Doug Beck, a vice president at Apple and U.S. Navy Reserve captain who previously worked with the unit from 2015 to 2019. The move restores the reporting relationship Defense Secretary Ash Carter established shortly after he created DIU in 2015 as a way to build stronger links with innovative technology companies not accustomed to working with the Department of Defense. However, the Trump administration then moved the unit into the portfolio of the under secretary of defense for research and engineering and its budget remained stagnant, prompting the previous DIU director to publicly argue that DOD was neglecting the unit. Although Congress has been reluctant to expand DIU in the past, it nearly tripled the unit’s annual budget to $112 million in fiscal year 2023, alongside increases provided to similar mechanisms such as the AFWERX organization attached to the Air Force Research Laboratory.
NASA Appoints Astronomer as Goddard Center Director
NASA announced last week that astronomer Makenzie Lystrup has taken the helm of its Goddard Space Flight Center, replacing Dennis Andrucyk, who stepped down at the end of 2022. Lystrup was previously vice president of Ball Aerospace’s Civil Space Strategic Business Unit, where she led the company’s work on the James Webb Space Telescope, Roman Space Telescope, Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, and Landsat 9. Before joining Ball in 2013, Lystrup was a science policy fellow in the office of then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and a postdoctoral fellow in astronomy at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Liège in Belgium. She earned a doctorate in astrophysics from University College London, focusing on the dynamics of planetary atmospheres.
White House Issues Strategies for Asteroid Defense, Orbital R&D
Last week, the White House issued an updated action plan for defense against hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids. The plan assigns federal agencies responsibilities for activities spanning six goals: enhancing NEO detection and characterization capabilities, improving NEO modeling tools, developing reconnaissance and deflection technologies, exercising emergency procedures for impacts, increasing international cooperation, and improving interagency collaboration. Explaining the rationale for updating an action plan released in 2018, the report points to new opportunities for international cooperation and technology demonstration missions, as well as the “increasing prioritization of planetary defense by the scientific community,” citing the latest decadal survey for planetary science. The White House issued a separate strategy for R&D conducted in low-Earth orbit (LEO) last month. The strategy’s objectives include establishing an “LEO National Laboratory” encompassing both orbital and terrestrial facilities that would incorporate capabilities from the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, universities, and private-sector partners. The International Space Station is currently designated as a national lab but is expected to cease operation after 2030.
National Energy Technology Lab Announces Facility Upgrades
The Department of Energy announced last week that it will distribute $150 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to support infrastructure upgrades across the National Energy Technology Lab’s three sites in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Among other activities, the funds will support improvements to the Advanced Alloy Development Center, the modernization of facilities for carbon conversion and critical materials R&D, and upgrades to high-performance computing infrastructure. DOE also announced that it has awarded $16 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to the University of North Dakota and West Virginia University for projects that will lay groundwork for building a domestic demonstration refinery for critical minerals. In addition, the department just launched a $450 million program funded by the infrastructure law to support clean energy demonstration projects on former mine lands as part of a broader push to revitalize coal communities. Eligible projects include solar, microgrids, geothermal, direct air capture, energy storage, and advanced nuclear technologies, as well as projects that generate electricity using fossil fuels but capture the associated emissions.
|
|
Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, April 10
Tuesday, April 11
Wednesday, April 12
Thursday, April 13
Friday, April 14
Saturday, April 15
Monday, April 17
|
|
Opportunities NSF Seeking Members for Advisory Committees
The National Science Foundation is accepting recommendations for potential members of its advisory committees. NSF maintains advisory committees for each of its directorates as well as more specialized committees on astronomy and astrophysics; environmental research and education; equal opportunities in science and engineering; cyberinfrastructure; international science and engineering; and business and operations. Recommendations will be accepted on an ongoing basis.
DOE Seeking Nominees for Fermi Award
The Department of Energy is soliciting nominations for the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award, which recognizes scientific, technical, policy, and management achievements broadly related to the department’s mission. It is one of the U.S. government’s most prestigious science awards and has been presented at irregular intervals since 1956. Nominations are due July 10.
State S&T Institute Hiring Editor and Policy Analysts
The State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) is hiring a senior writer/editor and graduate-level policy research assistants. The senior editor will write news stories, oversee the production of SSTI’s weekly newsletter, and edit other content across the organization. Candidates should have strong research and communications skills and an understanding of federal, state and local policy. A bachelor’s degree in journalism, public relations, communications, or a related field is preferred. The research assistant positions require a commitment of 15 to 20 hours per week and start at the beginning of the summer or fall semesters.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
|
|
Around the Web
News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.
White House
Congress
Science, Society, and the Economy
Education and Workforce
Research Management
Labs and Facilities
Computing and Communications
Space
Weather, Climate, and Environment
Energy
Defense
Biomedical
International Affairs
|
|
|
| |
| |
|