What’s Ahead

Image credit – Architect of the Capitol

Congress Begins Consequential Year for Science Policy

The Senate resumes session on Monday and the House will return next week for what could become a historic year for science policy legislation. The Senate’s immediate attention is focused on Democrats’ attempts to craft a version of their nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act that satisfies objections from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) without losing the support of other members of their caucus. In his role as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin added back $5 billion in research infrastructure funding for the Department of Energy last month, and he recently expressed willingness to continue negotiations over other portions of the bill, including its climate change mitigation provisions. Separately, Congress is expected to soon ramp up efforts to negotiate a compromise version of landmark innovation policy legislation, based on the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and a series of bills passed by the House, such as the DOE Science for the Future Act and the National Science Foundation for the Future Act.

Beyond the action on marquee legislation, the Senate will continue processing nominations for leadership positions across science agencies. Nominees that have been approved at the committee level but are awaiting floor votes include directors for the DOE Office of Science, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Office of Research and Development at the Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate is also waiting to receive nominations from President Biden for a number of vacant science positions, such as the heads of the U.S. Geological Survey, DOE’s nuclear energy and renewable energy offices, and, with the departure of Francis Collins last month, the National Institutes of Health.

Omicron Derails Major Astronomy Conference

Astronomers are regrouping this week after the rapid spread of the omicron coronavirus variant led the American Astronomical Society to cancel its largest meeting of the year, which was scheduled to begin in Salt Lake City this weekend. In explaining the decision, AAS CEO Kevin Marvel said it was not possible to quickly convert the meeting to a fully virtual event and that the society now plans to make its summer meeting into its major conference for the year. AAS will however hold free webinars in the coming months where science agency officials will offer program updates, in place of the town hall sessions they scheduled for the January meeting. In these webinars, NASA and the National Science Foundation are expected to provide initial responses to the latest decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics, which recommends priorities for new major facilities, small and mid-scale projects, and workforce development initiatives. Another major scientific conference that may be disrupted by omicron is the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting, scheduled to begin in Houston on Jan. 23. AMS has indicated it will provide an update on its plans for the event this week. (AAS and AMS are AIP Member Societies.)

In Case You Missed It

Charles Lieber exits a federal courtroom in Boston, Massachusetts. (Image credit – Michael Dwyer / AP)

Harvard Professor Found Guilty in High-Profile China Initiative Case

After deliberating for less than three hours, a jury convicted Harvard University chemistry professor Charles Lieber on Dec. 21 on charges of lying to federal investigators about his participation in a Chinese talent recruitment program and failing to report income he received through the arrangement to the IRS. During the one-week trial, prosecutors presented video of an interrogation in which Lieber admitted to receiving tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation from the Wuhan Institute of Technology that he did not disclose, and said he was unaware of how China classified him in response to questions about his talent program participation. While Lieber’s lawyers argued it could not be proven he was lying on that point, the prosecutors presented a contract he signed making him a participant in the program and pointed to his admission of not being transparent with officials from federal science agencies. Lieber’s case represents the first time a jury has rendered a guilty verdict against an academic in a case brought through the Justice Department’s China Initiative and follows the acquittal of another scientist after a judge concluded prosecutors could not reasonably prove their case. The initiative has come under fire from advocacy groups for focusing on crimes related to disclosure of funding rather than more serious charges of espionage and theft, as well as for predominantly affecting scientists of Asian descent. Despite Lieber’s conviction, some observers believe the department may soon ease up on its prosecutions of academics. In the coming months, several more China Initiative cases are scheduled to go to trial, including those of University of Kansas chemistry professor Franklin Tao, University of Arkansas engineering professor Simon Saw-Teong Ang, and Texas A&M University professor Zhendong Cheng.

APS Surveys Impacts of Security Policies, Suggests Reforms

The American Physical Society released survey results on Dec. 20 that it states demonstrate federal actions on research security are weakening the U.S. scientific enterprise by disrupting international collaboration and the recruiting and retention of foreign scientists. Out of 1,445 non-student APS members working in the U.S. who responded to the survey, 9% reported being “directed to withdraw” from international collaboration opportunities and 16% reported having chosen to withdraw from such opportunities at their own discretion due to current research security policies. APS adds that written responses to open-ended questions from the survey suggest some scientists are taking an “overly cautious approach out of fear,” such as “not writing recommendation letters for graduating students who are applying for positions in China and ending collaborations with former postdocs.” In addition, among 137 physics graduate students from abroad who reported being familiar with research security policies, about half indicated the government’s current approach makes them less likely to pursue careers in the U.S. More broadly, among 356 graduate students and early career professionals from abroad, about 40% perceive that the U.S. is an “unwelcoming country for international students and scholars.” Among its recommendations for modifying the government’s approach, APS suggests reforms to immigration policy and repeats its recent call for the Justice Department to overhaul its China Initiative. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

DOE Establishes $5 Billion Technology Demonstration Office

The Department of Energy announced on Dec. 21 it has established the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations that is receiving its initial funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Biden administration first proposed creating the office in DOE’s latest budget request, envisioning it as overseeing commercial-scale projects that cut across technology areas the department supports, but the infrastructure law assigns it a more expansive role, covering many efforts that might otherwise have been funded through existing offices. Accordingly, the law appropriates it a first-year budget of over $5 billion, well more than the $400 million requested by the administration, and it essentially guarantees a five-year budget totalling $21.5 billion. The law parcels out components of that funding to four regional hydrogen-production “hubs,” carbon capture pilot and demonstration projects, as well as demonstration projects in industrial decarbonization and energy storage. In addition, the office will fund the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program that was recently created within the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. DOE career official Kelly Cummins is leading the office on an acting basis and it is reporting to Under Secretary for Science and Energy Geri Richmond.

GAO Issues Post Mortem on Past DOE Carbon Management Projects

The Government Accountability Office released a report on Dec. 20 reviewing 11 carbon capture and storage projects the Department of Energy supported using $1.1 billion provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Of eight projects carried out at coal power plants, only one was ultimately completed, with three funding recipients withdrawing their projects and DOE terminating the other four. GAO suggests that the primary factor underlying that record was a deterioration in the projects’ economic viability connected to the declining fortunes of coal power and uncertainties in carbon markets. However, the report also criticizes DOE’s project management, stating the department undertook expedited reviews of project proposals and failed to impose cost controls, leading it to spend almost $300 million more than planned on the funded phases of the projects it eventually terminated. Of three projects that DOE funded at industrial facilities, the report relates that two were completed and the funding recipient for the third withdrew after cancelling work on the facility the project was to be incorporated into. GAO prepared the report pursuant to a provision in the Energy Act of 2020, which authorized a major expansion in DOE support for carbon management projects that is now set to be funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Biden Signs National Defense Authorization Act

President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 into law on Dec. 27. FYI published its full summary of the legislation’s provisions for science and technology policy on Dec. 15 after Congress cleared the bill by large bipartisan majorities. These provisions generally reflect lawmakers’ ongoing interest in accelerating emerging technologies; advancing specific technology categories such as quantum technology, microelectronics, and biotechnology; and streamlining collaboration between the Department of Defense and extramural researchers. Congress also included provisions aimed at sharpening the U.S. response to the “anomalous health incidents” colloquially known as Havana Syndrome and to military encounters with “unidentified aerial phenomena.” The latter subject was a high priority for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who died on Dec. 28 and will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 12.

OSTP Building Up ‘Tech Team’

On Dec. 21, the White House appointed Alexander Macgillivray to the role of principal deputy U.S. chief technology officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Macgillivray is an attorney who previously served as deputy U.S. CTO from 2014 to 2017 and before that as general counsel for Google and Twitter. In tweets announcing he had joined OSTP, he stated his first priority will be expanding the office’s “tech team” and welcomed suggestions on potential candidates for U.S. CTO, a high-ranking position created by President Obama in 2009 and retained by President Trump. The Biden administration has until now offered little information about its plans for the role, though it hired data strategist Denice Ross in November to serve as U.S. chief data officer, another high-ranking policy job within OSTP.

National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini Retires

The National Weather Service is starting out the new year under new leadership after its longtime director, Louis Uccellini, retired on Jan 1 after nearly a decade in the role, which is a civil-service position. Mary Erickson, who was Uccellini’s deputy, is now serving as acting director. In an interview with the Washington Post just before his departure, Uccellini said he is most proud of his work to reform the NWS budget structure after earlier financial mismanagement and to establish “a trusted relationship with the emergency management and public safety officials at every government level” through Impact-based Decision Support Services. Asked about the scandal over NOAA political officials criticising a NWS forecast of Hurricane Dorian that contradicted statements by President Trump, Uccellini described it as the “biggest leadership challenge I ever faced” and recounted his efforts to defend the local forecast office. “Looking back, I would not have done anything differently,” he said.

NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green Steps Down

Space physicist Jim Green stepped aside as NASA’s chief scientist in the new year after spending nearly four years in the position. Green’s career with NASA stretches back to 1980. He held positions overseeing the agency’s space science data operations from 1985 to 2005 and led its Planetary Science Division from 2006 until his move to the chief scientist role. The chief scientist occupies a position outside NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is responsible for advising agency leaders and orchestrating science policy across the agency’s directorates. During Green’s time in the role, NASA began working to more deeply integrate its exploration and scientific research activities as the agency charted plans for crewed missions to the Moon and eventually Mars. In an interview the New York Times published over the weekend, Green also discussed his recent initiative to develop a scale of confidence in the detection of extraterrestrial life, pointing to the widely publicized discovery of biosignatures in Venus’ atmosphere in 2020 that many scientists now regard as spurious. NASA has not yet named Green’s successor.

White House Extends Space Station Commitment Through 2030

NASA announced on Dec. 31 that the Biden administration supports extending the U.S. commitment to the International Space Station from the end of 2024 to the end of 2030. Currently, the U.S. operates the station in partnership with Russia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency at a cost to NASA of about $3 billion per year. The station serves as the platform for a number of scientific instruments and has hosted more than 3,000 experiments attended to by the station’s crew members. NASA is planning on transferring its activities in low Earth orbit to the commercial sector later this decade and last month awarded a total of $416 million to three companies to support the design of new space platforms. However, a recent audit performed by NASA’s Office of Inspector General warned that a commercial platform is not likely to be ready until “well after” 2030 and that by that year the agency will not have completed station-based research needed to prepare for crewed deep-space missions that are now in the earliest stages of planning.

Flagship Webb Telescope Launches, Begins Deployment

The James Webb Space Telescope separates from its launch vehicle on a trajectory that will take it to a gravitationally stable position well beyond the Moon’s orbit. (Image credit – Arianespace, ESA, NASA, CSA, CNES)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched successfully on Dec. 25 and is now more than a week into its 29-day, 1.5 million-kilometer journey to Earth’s second Lagrange point, where it will follow the planet as it orbits the Sun. The spacecraft is currently deploying into its operational configuration and has so far encountered only minor difficulties. This week, the mission team expects to undertake the intricate process of tensioning the spacecraft’s sunshield, a structure that keeps the telescope cold, before completing the deployment process by unfolding the telescope’s mirror assemblies. Once the telescope reaches its destination, it will undergo a further five months of commissioning before commencing science operations. Following the launch and subsequent course-correction maneuvers, the mission team reported the spacecraft has enough remaining fuel to enable “significantly more” than 10 years of science operations, crediting the precision of its Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Aside from offering unprecedented capabilities for observing exoplanets and galaxies billions of light-years away, the Webb Telescope will replace and augment space-based infrared observational capabilities that have been absent since NASA decommissioned its Spitzer Space Telescope almost two years ago. Several years from now, the agency is planning to launch another flagship infrared observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will provide complementary wide-field survey capabilities.

Events This Week

All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.

Monday, January 3

AIAA: Science and Technology Forum and Exposition
(continues through Friday)

Tuesday, January 4

No events.

Wednesday, January 5

POSTPONED -- Senate: Hearing to advance the nomination of Robert Califf as FDA commissioner
10:00 am, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

White House: National Environmental Justice Advisory Council meeting
1:00 - 4:00 pm

Thursday, January 6

AAPT: Winter Meeting
(continues through Saturday)

National Academies: “Review of FCC Order 20-48 Authorizing Operation of a Terrestrial Radio Network Near the GPS Frequency Bands”
5:00 - 7:00 pm

Friday, January 7

No events.

Monday, January 10

FDP: Federal Demonstration Partnership meeting
(continues through Thursday)

National Academies: Board on Science Education meeting
(continues Tuesday)

Atlantic Council: “A Conversation with Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger”
10:00 - 10:45 am

National Academies: “Technical Assessment of the Capital Facility Needs of NIST,” kickoff meeting
Closed to the public

Opportunities

APS Hiring Science Policy Intern

The American Physical Society is seeking a science policy intern to work for a half year in its Office of Government Affairs in Washington, D.C. The intern will support the office’s staff on a variety of projects, such as federal science budget tracking and grassroots advocacy initiatives. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, though exceptions can be made for “outstanding undergraduate students.”

ITIF Accepting Applications for Climate Tech Policy ‘Boot Camp’

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is accepting applications for its 2022 “climate-tech policy boot camp,” which aims to “strengthen researchers’ understanding of how leaders in government, business, and finance make policy and management decisions, so their research has greater impact on real-world clean energy and climate innovation outcomes.” The boot camp will be held from June 5 to 10 in Washington, D.C. Applicants must have received a doctoral degree in 2011 or later and be actively pursuing research in energy or climate policy. Applications are due Feb. 14.

NSF Seeks Input on Convergence Accelerator Future Topics

The National Science Foundation is seeking ideas for future research “tracks” for its Convergence Accelerator, which aims to “accelerate use-inspired convergence research in areas of national importance and societal challenges, and to initiate convergence team-building capacity around exploratory, potentially high-risk proposals.” NSF is particularly interested in topics that have “significant societal impacts” and that advance critical and emerging technologies identified in the White House’s cross-agency R&D priorities for fiscal year 2023. Submissions are due Feb. 28.

For additional opportunities, please visit www.aip.org/fyi/opportunities. Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.