| |
What’s Ahead
 |
| Tim Gallaudet and Neil Jacobs, center, on a visit to the National Hurricane Center in 2018 during their time as top appointees in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both are testifying this week on a legislative proposal to make NOAA an independent agency. (Image credit – NOAA) |
Former NOAA Leaders to Testify on Agency Independence
House Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) is convening a hearing on Tuesday in support of his legislative push to separate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the Commerce Department and establish it as an independent agency. Scheduled to testify are Conrad Lautenbacher, who led NOAA under President George W. Bush, and Tim Gallaudet and Neil Jacobs, who each served for periods as acting agency head during the Trump administration. One of Lucas’ goals for his legislation is to reinforce scientific integrity at the agency. While Jacobs was leading NOAA, Commerce Department political appointees pressured him to issue a statement widely understood as rebuking a NOAA weather office for contradicting President Donald Trump about the path of a hurricane, though Jacobs argued his actions did not violate the agency’s integrity policy. Gallaudet was not ensnared in that high-profile affair, but he recently told news outlet Axios he strongly endorses the idea of making NOAA an independent agency, remarking, “I cannot tell you the number of times where progress was impeded by having to go through the bureaucratic layer of the Department of Commerce.” However, other sources told Axios they were concerned independence would diminish the clout NOAA can muster as a major agency within a Cabinet department. NOAA has been within the Commerce Department since its establishment a half-century ago, while a handful of other science agencies have been independent throughout their existence, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Science Agency Watchdogs Testifying Across Three Hearings
The House Science Committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday with the inspectors general of NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss oversight of agencies’ R&D program management. Not appearing is Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson, whom the committee is investigating on a bipartisan basis, citing whistleblower allegations of retaliation as well as “gross mismanagement, lack of productivity, and the publication of false or misleading statements.” Gustafson has denied the allegations. DOE Inspector General Teri Donaldson is also appearing at a hearing by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday alongside acting DOE Under Secretary for Infrastructure Kathleen Hogan. Donaldson testified last month that her office will need an immediate increase of $300 million to adequately oversee DOE programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Finally this week, the inspector general for the National Institutes of Health is appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday to discuss allegations by Republican committee members that the agency has mismanaged grant funds.
Science Agency Heads to Defend Budget Requests
Agency leaders testifying on their budget requests for fiscal year 2024 this week include the heads of NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce.
- NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson are appearing jointly before Senate appropriators on Tuesday and separately before House appropriators on Wednesday morning and afternoon, respectively.
- Leaders from DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration are appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is examining DOE’s overall budget on Thursday.
- Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is appearing before House appropriators on Tuesday.
- Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak is appearing before House appropriators on Wednesday alongside the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Health and Human Services Department.
Argonne National Lab Begins Installing Light Source Upgrade
Starting this week, the Advanced Photon Source user facility at Argonne National Lab will be offline for about one year to accommodate installation of equipment upgrades. APS is a synchrotron electron accelerator that has been operating since 1995 and it is the preeminent U.S. facility for research employing continuous beams of high-energy X-rays. In an ordinary year, APS serves more than 5,000 users, enabling the study of the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic level, among other applications. The upgrade will multiply the light source’s brightness by up to 500 times, bringing its capabilities up to par those already available at the world-leading European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France. Congress has been funding the upgrade project for over a decade and its total $815 million budget is, as of this fiscal year, now fully appropriated. The project has progressed smoothly during its design and equipment fabrication phases, with costs and schedules remaining generally stable despite pandemic-related disruptions over the last few years.
NSF to Elaborate on Priorities for Physics Directorate
Officials from the National Science Foundation are discussing the Biden administration’s request to raise the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate budget by 9% to $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2024 at a meeting of the directorate’s advisory committee on Wednesday. The administration is seeking budget increases in the range of 3% to 4% for the directorate’s divisions dedicated to physics, astronomy, chemistry, materials research, and mathematical sciences, as well as a nearly 45% increase for the directorate’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, formerly called the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities. The committee is also hearing an update on NSF’s research security initiatives and a presentation on a routine external audit of its Physics Division’s grant management practices. The meeting continues on Thursday with an update on work of subcommittees respectively focused on research infrastructure project prioritization and the design of a next-generation gravitational wave observatory.
Meteorologists Convene in DC for AMS Forum
The American Meteorological Society is hosting its annual policy forum in Washington, D.C., from Monday to Wednesday. This year’s forum includes sessions on topics such as venture capital investment in climate technology, applications of emerging technologies, benefits and challenges of the push for more open science, and how scientific societies can better support workforce development. The chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will give a keynote address on Monday and a session on Tuesday will feature officials from NOAA, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Air Force. (AMS is an AIP Member Society.)
|
|
In Case You Missed It
 |
| JoAnne Hewett (Image credit – SLAC) |
JoAnne Hewett Picked to Direct Brookhaven National Lab
Brookhaven National Lab announced last week that its governing board has selected SLAC theoretical physicist JoAnne Hewett to be the lab’s next director. She will be the first woman to hold the role, which she is expected to take up this summer. Hewett received her doctorate in physics from Iowa State University in 1988 and joined SLAC in 1994, where she has had a series of leadership roles and currently serves as the lab’s chief research officer and its top official for fundamental physics. She also chairs the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, a federal advisory committee that serves the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. At Brookhaven, Hewett will succeed Doon Gibbs, who is departing the lab this week. Gibbs has been director since 2012 and, prior to stepping aside, was the longest-serving of the current leaders of the 17 DOE national labs. Among the tasks he is leaving Hewett is overseeing construction of the Electron-Ion Collider, a flagship facility for research in fundamental physics that will replace Brookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which is set to conclude operations in 2025. Brookhaven Deputy Director of Operations Jack Anderson will serve as interim director until Hewett’s arrival.
US Regulators to Treat Fusion Less Stringently Than Fission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced last week it has directed staff to develop a regulatory approach for fusion energy systems that focuses on managing their radioactive byproducts rather than more comprehensively governing facility operations. The commissioners approved a regulation option proposed by staff in a white paper published in January that will not subject fusion plants to what is known as a “utilization facility approach,” which is used for devices such as fission reactors that present greater nuclear weapons proliferation or public safety risks. However, the framework NRC approved will be specific to fusion energy systems expected to be developed in the “near term” and the commission indicates it may revisit the issue if later system designs are found to present additional hazards.
NASA Setting Up New Review Board for Mars Sample Return Mission
NASA announced last week that Orlando Figueroa will chair a new independent review board for its Mars Sample Return mission, which it is pursuing in partnership with the European Space Agency. Although another review board already examined the project early in its formulation, NASA and ESA substantially reconfigured the mission architecture last year and it is facing fresh cost increases that may compel further significant changes. In the early 2000s, Figueroa held the informal title of “Mars czar,” leading the program that developed the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity rovers after the failure of NASA’s previous two Mars missions. He went on to hold a series of high-level management positions at the agency’s headquarters and Goddard Space Flight Center. Mars Sample Return is NASA’s most complex mission to the planet so far, comprising multiple vehicles that are targeted for launch later this decade to retrieve surface samples the Perseverance rover is currently collecting. The agency expects the new review to be completed in August, before it finalizes the mission configuration and commits to a baseline cost estimate.
ESA Launches Mission to Moons of Jupiter
The European Space Agency launched its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) probe on April 14, putting it on a trajectory that will bring it to Jupiter in the summer of 2031. JUICE will make a total of 35 flybys of the moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa before settling into orbit around Ganymede for the remainder of its mission. All three moons may harbor subsurface oceans that could sustain conditions necessary for life. JUICE cost nearly $1.8 billion, with NASA contributing instruments costing just over $100 million. NASA’s own $5 billion Europa Clipper mission is slated to launch in fall 2024 and reach Jupiter in 2030, where it will focus specifically on Europa, conducting dozens of flybys of the moon, which is thought to have a vast ocean just beneath its ice-encrusted surface.
JASON Suggests Ways to Clarify Research Security Concerns
The National Science Foundation has posted a report it commissioned from the JASON science advisory group to lay groundwork for a new program that will fund research on efforts by foreign governments to exploit the U.S. research system. The report, which JASON completed last month, argues that among the greatest challenges will be ensuring researchers can access anonymized data on enforcement actions taken by federal agencies and universities. It also stresses that, while legitimate threats to “research security” do exist, they are often conflated with breaches of “research integrity,” such as violations of professional codes of conduct. In addition, it argues the FBI has exhibited “a lack of understanding of the norms of conduct of fundamental research at universities,” and it cautions that some scientists perceive the U.S. government’s recent research security campaigns as “a mechanism to pursue a racist policy against Chinese and Chinese-American scientists,” citing a 2021 survey by the American Physical Society. (APS is an AIP Member Society.) Among other recommendations, JASON encourages NSF to embed social scientists into natural science research labs to “strengthen the understanding of the customs and operations of open science.”
Academies Panel Deems NNSA Supercomputing Plans Inadequate
A National Academies report released last week argues the National Nuclear Security Administration’s computing needs are growing at a rate that will surpass planned upgrades, including the impending installation of an exascale supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. The report also concludes NNSA is ill-positioned to take advantage of the next generation of computing power and that a “business-as-usual” approach will fail. For instance, it draws attention to NNSA’s challenges in recruiting computing talent and to how all exascale systems under development in the U.S. are being integrated by a single company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, with much of the commercial market increasingly focused on hardware relevant to cloud computing or artificial intelligence applications that are not necessarily aligned with NNSA needs. Among its recommendations, the report urges NNSA to support “higher-risk” research activities to explore post-exascale system architectures. It cites quantum computing as a potential breakthrough technology, but warns it is still nascent and that NNSA should not count on it becoming viable in the near future.
|
|
Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, April 17
Tuesday, April 18
Wednesday, April 19
Thursday, April 20
Friday, April 21
Monday, April 24
|
|
Opportunities BIS Export Control Advisory Panels Recruiting Members
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking members for its six Technical Advisory Committees, which assess prospective export controls on dual-use technologies in specific domains: information technologies, biological and chemical materials, sensors and instrumentation, transportation equipment, and emerging technologies. Committee members serve terms of up to four years and must obtain secret-level clearances prior to their appointment. The solicitation closes June 13.
S&T Advocacy Initiative Seeking Director
Research!America, a research advocacy nonprofit, is hiring a director to oversee the Science and Technology Action Committee, which aims to convince Congress to double federal spending on R&D over five years. Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in science, public policy, or a relevant field and at least seven years of policy and advocacy experience, preferably related to science and technology issues.
Metascience Project Seeking Proposals
A metascience project supported through the crowdfunding platform Experiment is providing $50,000 to researchers interested in “investigating how we can most effectively fund and support science.” The grants will provide up to $10,000 per team. Applications are due April 30.
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
|
|
|
| |
| |
|