| |
What’s Ahead
 |
| The National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. (Image credit – William Thomas / AIP) |
Academies Releasing High-Profile Diversity and Inclusion Report
The National Academies is holding a briefing on Tuesday to mark the release of a major report titled, “Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Beyond Broadening Participation.” The study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, six philanthropic foundations, and the Academies’ own endowment fund for supporting studies core to its mission. National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will open the briefing followed by remarks from four members of the study panel, including its co-chairs, Olin College of Engineering President Gilda Barabino and Princeton University professor of psychology and public affairs Susan Fiske. The panel was charged with identifying effective strategies for overcoming barriers facing historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine, as well as with synthesizing existing research on the subject and setting an agenda for future investigations.
Study Launching on Predictions of Extreme Precipitation
On Thursday and Friday, the National Academies is holding a kickoff meeting for a study to recommend a preferred method of estimating “probable maximum precipitation,” including by accounting for the effects of climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is sponsoring the effort, satisfying a requirement in the PRECIP Act, which became law as part of a stopgap funding measure late last year. Originally introduced by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), then chair of the House Science Committee’s Environment Subcommittee, the legislation also mandates that NOAA regularly update its probable maximum precipitation estimates, which inform risk assessments by setting local upper-bound expectations for extreme rain and snowfall events. The Academies study is chaired by James Smith, an expert on hydrology and flood hazards at Princeton University.
DOE Laying Groundwork for New Nonprofit Foundation
The Department of Energy has opened a request for comments that will inform its establishment of an independent, nonprofit “Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation” (FESI) later this year. Last year’s CHIPS and Science Act mandated the foundation’s creation to provide a mechanism for raising private funding that can be used to support public-private activities related to the commercialization of energy technologies. Congress has previously mandated similar entities associated with other science agencies, such as the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and many of the national labs DOE oversees already have associated foundations. DOE’s solicitation, which closes March 27, is focused on matters such as identifying potential partnership opportunities, examples of activities that could benefit from FESI’s involvement, and how FESI-supported activities can address various policy goals.
National Science Board to Meet
The National Science Board, the body that oversees the National Science Foundation, is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. On the first day, the board will hear a panel discussion on the teaching of STEM subjects at pre-collegiate levels as well as from its own Explorations in K–12 STEM Education working group. Other board committees will present on subjects such as risk management in NSF’s major facilities portfolio, the next edition of the board’s biennial Science and Engineering Indicators statistical compendium, and a new initiative to re-examine NSF’s merit-review process. The next day, the board will hear an update on NSF’s response to the sexual harassment and assault that has frequently occurred at facilities it oversees in Antarctica.
|
|
In Case You Missed It
 |
| At right, Building 101, the main administrative building on NIST’s campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. NIST Director Laurie Locascio remarked at a meeting of the agency’s main advisory committee on Feb. 8, “We can opt out of [working onsite] if your facilities basically aren’t appropriate for handling people, and that is the case with Building 101 right now. For instance, I’m not in my office. I haven’t been since November. I’m camping out in different places, because the entire building is basically shut down. … And that’s not the only building impacted currently by poor facilities.” (Image credit – NIST) |
Panel Condemns Neglect of NIST Facilities
The National Academies released a congressionally mandated assessment last week that spotlights the deterioration of buildings and infrastructure at the National Institute of Standards and Technology campuses in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado. Observing that conditions have created safety hazards, impeded research, and destroyed expensive equipment, the assessment panel concluded the situation threatens NIST’s mission performance and degrades its ability to recruit personnel. Laying the blame on persistently inadequate funding, the assessment states that implementing a recapitalization plan NIST recently completed would annually require between $420 million and $550 million in combined construction and maintenance funding over the next 12 years. Congress appropriated $130 million for maintenance in fiscal year 2023, up from $80 million in fiscal year 2022, and nothing for construction. The assessment stresses that NIST’s problems demand “top-down action” in the form of adequate budget requests and appropriations, though it also urges the agency to better communicate the circumstances it faces and their consequences for stakeholders and the public. The assessment panel was chaired by Ross Corotis, a retired professor of structural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.
NIST Creating Chief Metrologist Role, Shuffles Lab Leaders
National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie Locascio reported at an advisory committee meeting last week that the agency is creating a new senior position of chief metrologist that will represent NIST’s “equities on the global stage as the lead national metrology institute in the world.” Physicist Jim Olthoff, NIST’s associate director for laboratory programs, will take on the role and his current position will be filled by Chuck Romine, who currently directs the agency’s Information Technology Lab. The Information Technology Lab will then be led on an interim basis by its deputy director, Jim St. Pierre. Locascio also said that Marla Dowell, who leads NIST’s Communications Technology Lab, is now going to direct metrology activities in the agency’s new office overseeing implementation of the semiconductor R&D initiatives in the CHIPS and Science Act. The Communications Technology Lab will be led for the time being by the chief of its Public Safety Communications Division, Dereck Orr. In addition, Locascio said NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) Director Rob Dimeo is moving to a new position at Oak Ridge National Lab next month and that Jim Adams, the chief of NIST’s Radiation Physics Division, will serve as acting director. Dimeo has directed NCNR since 2010 and is currently leading its ongoing recovery from a radiation incident that has kept its research reactor offline for the past two years.
Science Committee Leadership Ranks Turn Over
Both the House Science Committee’s Republican majority and Democratic minority announced subcommittee leadership assignments last week, with substantial changes on each side. Among the Republicans, the most significant shift is that their longtime leader on the Energy Subcommittee, Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), has stepped aside. The panel is now chaired by newly elected Rep. Brandon Williams (R-NY), a software company founder and former Navy nuclear engineering officer who represents the region around Syracuse, New York. Two other subcommittee chairs are also new to Congress. Environment Subcommittee Chair Max Miller (R-OH) represents a district outside Cleveland and previously worked as a White House aide under President Donald Trump. Research and Technology Subcommittee Chair Mike Collins (R-GA), the founder of a trucking business, represents a district encompassing the University of Georgia. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who represents the district around Johnson Space Center, remains in his longstanding leadership role on the Space Subcommittee. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), who holds a master’s degree in artificial intelligence and represents a district in southeastern California, now chairs the Oversight Subcommittee, having previously been its ranking member.
Two of the Democrats’ ranking members are newly elected: Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL), a television news meteorologist in northern Illinois, will lead the party on the Space Subcommittee, and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), who had a long career as a local politician, will be the top Democrat on the Oversight Subcommittee. New Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Deborah Ross (D-NC) is in her second term and both she and Foushee represent districts in North Carolina’s Research Triangle region. The top Democrat on the Energy Subcommittee continues to be Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a former school principal who is starting his second term representing a district in and around New York City. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who represents a suburban Detroit district and once worked for a Manufacturing USA institute, remains the Democrats’ leader on the Research and Technology Subcommittee.
Report Details R&D Priorities for Inertial Fusion Energy
The Department of Energy has released a nearly finalized report from a workshop it convened last year to explore priorities for research that could help pave the way to generating energy using inertial fusion methods. Although inertial fusion energy (IFE) is acknowledged to be a distant prospect, it gained renewed attention in December when the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab used its array of powerful lasers to achieve the long-awaited feat of deriving more energy from a nuclear fusion reaction in a laboratory setting than was applied to it. The report backs the recommendation of a 2013 National Academies report that the milestone is an appropriate moment to initiate a focused IFE R&D program. Drawing on the perspectives of 120 workshop participants, it examines priority R&D topics covering subjects such as lasers and other fusion drivers, fusion fuel target manufacturing, power system design, and simulation tools. While the alternative magnetic confinement approach to fusion is believed to have a significantly easier path to practical energy generation, the report highlights certain advantages of IFE warranting its inclusion in DOE’s fusion energy R&D portfolio. These include the modularity of its design, allowing more flexibility in technology development, as well as its more efficient use of tritium fuel, reducing the amount of the rare hydrogen isotope that power plants would need.
Lawmakers Spotlight Progress in Fusion
Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s achievement of net energy gain from laser-driven fusion continues to draw attention from the lab’s champions in Congress. Laboratory Director Kim Budil and physicist Tammy Ma, who leads the lab’s inertial fusion energy initiative, attended President Biden’s State of the Union address last week as the guests of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), whose district encompasses Livermore, and House Science Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). In her opening statement at the Science Committee’s organizing meeting on Feb. 8, Lofgren singled out her support for fusion R&D as “one of the main reasons” she chose to take up her leadership role on the committee. Meanwhile, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) joined Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at a ribbon-cutting ceremony the company Commonwealth Fusion Systems held on Feb. 10 to mark the opening of its campus in Devens, Massachusetts. The campus is where CFS is building SPARC, a magnetic confinement fusion device it hopes will demonstrate net energy gain in the middle of this decade. Spun off from MIT, CFS has attracted more than $2 billion in venture capital funding and is aiming to build a fusion power plant by the early 2030s.
NSF Stands Up New Application-Oriented Grant Programs
Last week, the National Science Foundation announced a new program called “Accelerating Research Translation” (ART) within its Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate. Program grants will provide academic institutions with up to $6 million over four years to develop capabilities for translating research into applications. NSF plans to make up to 10 awards through the program’s first solicitation of proposals and is holding an informational webinar on Feb. 21. NSF also issued a separate, agency-wide solicitation of proposals for a new “Global Centers” program that will award grants in partnership with funding agencies in other countries for large-scale, collaborative “use-inspired” projects related to climate change and clean energy. In its initial round, the program expects to award between six and eight grants of up to $5 million each for projects lasting four or five years that are done in collaboration with researchers in Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia. It also plans to award smaller grants to develop ideas for similar projects with collaborators in any country.
|
|
Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, February 13
Tuesday, February 14
Wednesday, February 15
Thursday, February 16
Friday, February 17
No events.
|
|
Opportunities Nominees Sought for National Medal of Science
The National Science Foundation is seeking nominations for the National Medal of Science, which is awarded by the president to individuals who have made “outstanding cumulative contributions to knowledge” in science or engineering. Nominations are due May 26.
DOE Hiring Director for Advanced Computing Office
The Department of Energy Office of Science is hiring a director for its Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, which supports research in computer science and applied mathematics and maintains a network of high-performance computing facilities. Responsibilities for the position include formulating budget requests, coordinating with other science agencies, and liaising with Congress and foreign research institutions. Applications are due March 1.
JSPG Calling for Papers on Science and Security
The Journal of Science Policy & Governance is soliciting contributions to a special issue on science and technology policy and global security. Students and early-career professionals may submit op-eds, policy papers, and other articles on a range of foreign policy topics, including nuclear and hypersonic weapons, climate change, cybersecurity, and biosecurity. JSPG and the American Physical Society are hosting a series of training sessions in March. Submissions 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
|
|
|
| |
| |
|