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What’s Ahead
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| Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger speaks at an event announcing the company’s plans to build a semiconductor manufacturing complex in Ohio. Gelsinger is testifying at a Senate hearing this week. (Image credit – Walden Kirsch / Intel) |
Semiconductor Industry Executives Press Case for Subsidies
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday to examine the case for bolstering the domestic semiconductor industry by providing $52 billion for the manufacturing and R&D initiatives authorized a year ago in the CHIPS for America Act. Among the witnesses are Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, whose companies have each recently committed to build major semiconductor facilities in the U.S. and abroad, partly in anticipation of governments’ increasing support for the sector. Intel has announced plans to spend more than $20 billion to establish a chip fabrication complex in Ohio and up to €80 billion over the coming decade for facilities in Europe, with European Union officials crediting the latter move to the EU’s recent decision to pursue its own subsidy package. Also testifying at the hearing are Lam Research CEO Tim Archer, whose company supplies wafer fabrication equipment for the semiconductor industry, and Preston Feight, CEO of PACCAR Inc., an automotive company that relies on semiconductors. The hearing follows two recently held by the House Science Committee that likewise examined the case for government support for the semiconductor sector, including measures beyond the $52 billion currently on the table.
Fraud Trial Begins for Chemistry Professor Franklin Tao
University of Kansas chemistry professor Franklin Tao is going on trial starting Monday at a U.S. district courthouse in Kansas City, Kansas. The FBI arrested Tao in 2019 on charges of wire fraud and making false statements related to his alleged failure to disclose employment with Fuzhou University in China when applying for grants with the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. According to a profile of Tao that the New Yorker published last week, his lawyers plan to argue he was never employed by Fuzhou University, though he did explore potentially taking on a position there. They have also asserted that Tao first came to the FBI’s attention because a visiting scholar reported him as a possible spy during an attempt to extort him. Last month, the Justice Department announced it would set a higher bar for criminal prosecutions of academic researchers after some of its cases collapsed and evidence mounted its tactics were spreading fear among researchers. However, the department indicated it would move forward with cases that were still pending.
PCAST Turns Attention to Wildfires, Science Communication
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is holding a meeting on Thursday split between the topics of wildfire preparedness and science communication. The day’s first session, on wildfire detection, mitigation, and prevention, features presentations from fire chief Dustin Gardner, environmental lawyer Deborah Sivas, National Interagency Fire Center official Sean Triplett, and Los Alamos National Lab atmospheric scientist Rod Linn. Both the Biden administration and Congress are seeking to better mobilize wildfire science and technology and the House Science Committee is working to advance legislation on the subject. The second session features a panel of science communication experts: Skip Lupia, who recently stepped down as head of the National Science Foundation’s social sciences directorate; Northwestern University computer science professor Jessica Hullman; University of Pennsylvania communication professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson; and Consuelo Wilkins, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University who has worked to increase community engagement in the National Institute of Health’s All of Us precision medicine initiative. The session will be moderated by former NIH Director Francis Collins, who is currently acting as President Biden’s science advisor and PCAST co-chair.
NNSA Weapons and DOD Acquisition Nominees up for Review
The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday to review President Biden’s nominations of Marvin Adams to lead weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration and Bill LaPlante to oversee the Department of Defense’s weapons acquisition programs. Adams is a nuclear engineering professor at Texas A&M University and a longtime advisor to NNSA, which maintains the U.S. stockpile of nuclear warheads. He is likely to face questions about NNSA’s efforts to reconstitute facilities for producing the plutonium cores of warheads, known as “pits,” especially in light of the agency’s recent acknowledgement that it cannot meet the target of at least 80 pits per year by 2030. If confirmed, Adams will replace Charlie Verdon, a physicist from Lawrence Livermore National Lab who was one of the few Trump administration appointees to remain on into the Biden administration. LaPlante is president of Draper Laboratory and served as the U.S. Air Force’s lead acquisition official in the Obama administration. Biden nominated LaPlante for the DOD role last November after his initial pick, Defense Innovation Unit Director Mike Brown, withdrew from consideration.
‘Physics of Life’ Decadal Survey Set for Release
The National Academies is holding a report release event on Wednesday for the first-ever decadal survey of the “physics of living systems.” The survey committee was commissioned by the National Science Foundation and chaired by Princeton University physics professor William Bialek, who has framed its work as reviewing the physics of living systems as a subfield that “stands on its own” rather than as a mere application of physics tools and techniques to biological phenomena. NSF currently has a “Physics of Living Systems” program that funds research at scales ranging from single-cell dynamics to the collective behavior of animal populations, though the survey committee’s statement of task did not define the study scope as based on that program. Instead, the committee was more generally instructed to consider ways NSF and other funding agencies could “overcome traditional boundaries” to support research in the field.
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In Case You Missed It
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| NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan announced the new NSF directorate at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. (Image credit – NSF) |
NSF Creates Tech Directorate But Its Mission Remains up in Air
The National Science Foundation established a Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships on March 16, one day after Congress gave a green light to the concept through its final appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2022. NSF intends for the directorate to harvest promising ideas from across its discipline-specific research directorates and to accelerate their path to practical application. The directorate will assume responsibility for certain existing programs at NSF focused on technology commercialization, such as the SBIR/STTR small business R&D programs and the I-Corps entrepreneurial education program, and it will eventually launch new marquee initiatives such as a set of “Regional Innovation Accelerators” across the U.S. However, the ultimate scope of the directorate is still under debate in Congress, with the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act seeking to focus it on strategic technologies, while the House’s America COMPETES Act proposes that it also address a range of societal challenges such as climate change and economic inequality. Backers of the COMPETES Act proposal have stated they believe NSF’s approach to defining the directorate is well aligned with their own vision. Last week, the Senate scheduled a key procedural vote to clear the way for formal negotiations to begin on a compromise bill.
DOE Announces Fusion Coordination Initiative at White House Summit
During a White House summit on fusion energy last week, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that the Department of Energy is launching an agency-wide initiative to accelerate the development of commercial fusion energy, guided by the recommendations of a recent National Academies report that charted a path to building a U.S.-based fusion pilot plant by 2040. Scott Hsu, a program director for fusion technology at DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, will serve as the department’s new lead fusion coordinator, reporting to the under secretary for science and innovation. The summit also included panel discussions on recent advances in fusion energy technology, the current plans of fusion companies, and how fusion can be developed with energy justice considerations front of mind. Panelists stressed the importance of increasing collaboration between federally supported research, the fusion industry, and utility operators, as well as the value of engaging communities to build understanding and support for fusion energy and diversify the fusion workforce.
Regulators Deliver Blow to NIST Reactor Restart Plans
On March 16, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released its inspection report on the radiation incident that took place a year ago at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The center’s reactor has been offline since then, severely impinging on U.S.-based capacity for neutron-scattering experiments. NRC’s report identifies seven “apparent violations” of regulatory requirements, which it notes could result in a civil penalty. In general, the report concurs with NIST’s root-cause analysis that the incident is attributable to procedural deficiencies and operator errors during a routine refueling, but it also charges that the analysis does not go far enough, for example by failing to address “safety-culture weaknesses” at NCNR. It states, “Because of the identified weaknesses, the NRC staff has concerns about the sustainability of the licensee’s corrective actions; specifically, the sustainability of continuous training and a continuous process for updating procedures.” NRC will not reauthorize the reactor restart until NIST satisfies its concerns, and NIST has not yet indicated how that outcome will affect its restart schedule. However, at a recent advisory panel meeting, NCNR Director Rob Dimeo suggested that if NIST’s proposed corrective actions failed to satisfy NRC, that could push the restart beyond the end of 2022.
DOE Nuclear Energy Nominee Fields Queries on Uranium
The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee warmly welcomed Katy Huff, the nominee to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, at her nomination hearing last week. A professor of nuclear engineering, Huff led the office on an acting basis for most of last year and currently serves as senior advisor to the secretary of energy. Finding Huff well qualified, senators used the hearing to probe issues such as nuclear waste management, the Ukraine crisis, and the availability of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU), a fuel required in many proposed advanced reactors. Russia is the third-largest supplier of uranium to the U.S., meeting 16% of demand, and is the world’s only supplier of HALEU other than DOE itself, which currently produces only small quantities. Asked by Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY) about whether the administration intends to ban imports of Russian uranium, Huff said she could not say, but agreed that “Russian aggression really highlights the need for ensuring that we can onshore those capabilities.” Huff said she would work to accelerate the establishment of a strategic uranium reserve and build out a HALEU availability program, pointing to the $170 million HALEU demonstration project DOE is supporting at a commercial enrichment facility in Ohio. She estimated that potentially more than a billion dollars would be required to create a viable domestic source of HALEU. Huff also highlighted her efforts to restart DOE’s consent-based siting process for an interim nuclear waste storage facility, noting the office received a robust response to its request for information on the matter and plans to release the results soon.
Science Committee Warns Against Overhauling US Standards System
At a House Science Committee hearing on March 17, lawmakers and witnesses advocated for preserving the U.S.’ model for participating in international standards-setting bodies, which takes a decentralized approach that contrasts with the government-led models of China and the European Union. Research and Technology Subcommittee Chair Haley Stevens (D-MI) argued that strategies for standards that China and the EU recently released require a strong U.S. response while avoiding “heavy-handed government policies.” She raised particular concern about a provision in the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act that would assign the State Department a lead role in coordinating U.S. activities relating to certain technologies in international standards negotiations, saying it could disrupt the role currently played by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Both Stevens and Subcommittee Ranking Member Randy Feenstra (R-IA) advocated for Congress to ramp up NIST’s budget, as proposed in their NIST for the Future Act, to strengthen its ability to provide technical support to industry. Witnesses also sought to temper concerns from Congress about China’s growing influence over standards-setting bodies by highlighting the value of the country’s participation. Mary Saunders, vice president for government relations at the American National Standards Institute, remarked, “ANSI and its members have encouraged China’s participation in rule-based international organizations in lieu of developing their own standards that may not reflect the consensus of the global community.”
Senate Advances Pandemic Bill with ARPA–H Authorization Attached
The Senate Health Committee advanced the bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act on a vote of 20 to 2 last week after adopting a substitute amendment and several smaller changes. The bill includes a provision that would create an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the National Institutes of Health, while requiring that its headquarters cannot be located “inside of, or in close proximity to, the National Capital region.” Congress’ appropriation for fiscal year 2022 includes $1 billion for ARPA–H that is allocated outside NIH’s budget, though it authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services to transfer the funds into NIH if it chooses. The PREVENT Pandemics Act also includes a number of research security provisions, such as a measure that would bar NIH’s intramural researchers from participating in foreign talent programs and require NIH-funded extramural researchers to provide the agency with copies of any contracts or grants received through such programs. The agency has already taken these steps under its own authority, but the legislation would cement the requirements in statute. In addition, the committee adopted an amendment from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) that prohibits federally funded research involving “pathogens of pandemic potential” from being conducted in any nation the director of national intelligence deems to be a “country of concern.”
Europe’s Rosalind Franklin Rover Faces Long Wait for Launch
The European Space Agency announced last week it is suspending cooperation with Russian space agency Roscosmos on the ExoMars mission, which was scheduled to launch in September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission was originally supposed to launch in 2020, but it missed that year’s window due to difficulties encountered during the mission’s final phase of integration and testing. ESA officials said at a press conference after its announcement that the mission would only be able to meet the next launch window in 2024 if world events allow a quick restoration of relations with Roscosmos, which was supplying the mission’s landing platform and launch vehicle. Given the apparently dim prospects for that path, ESA is initiating a “fast-track industrial study” to explore alternative options for conveying the mission’s centerpiece, the ESA-built Rosalind Franklin rover, to Mars. If ESA does reconfigure the mission, which could include a partnership with NASA, it would target launch windows in 2026 or 2028. NASA and ESA are currently collaborating on the multi-vehicle Mars Sample Return mission, an intensive effort with a target launch date in 2026.
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Events This Week
All times are Eastern Standard Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, March 28
Tuesday, March 29
Wednesday, March 30
Thursday, March 31
Friday, April 1
Monday, April 4
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Opportunities Agencies Seek Input to Combat Misinformation
The Networking and Information Technology R&D National Coordination Office and National Science Foundation are accepting suggestions on R&D priorities that would help “advance the trustworthiness of information, mitigate the effects of information manipulation, and foster an environment of trust and resilience in which individuals can be discerning consumers of information.” Input is particularly sought on subject such as “gaps in knowledge regarding the differential impact of information manipulation and mitigations on different demographic groups,” barriers to greater public awareness of information manipulation, and the role of the federal government in fostering the “rapid transfer of information integrity R&D insights and results into practice.” Comments are due May 15.
UCS Hiring for Nuclear Security Roles
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program is hiring a scientist to advance its work to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons. Applicants must have experience conducting policy-relevant technical work in the fields such as nuclear weapons, missile defense and space weapons, or the effects of emerging technologies on nuclear risks and strategic stability, among other topics. Applications are due April 15. The program is also seeking candidates for its Kendall Fellowship, which focuses on addressing the “adverse impacts of nuclear weapons production on impacted communities” and helping to “expand the capacity of local and/or indigenous advocates in policy and regulatory spaces.” The two-year fellowship is open to doctoral students who complete their advanced degree before September 2022, and applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
NSPN Launches Science Policy Writing Competition
The National Science Policy Network has launched its fourth annual science policy writing competition. Submissions must be policy briefs no longer than two pages and should include “an attention-getting title and subtitle, a concise summary of the chosen science and technology policy issue and potential solutions, graphics and/or figures, and, if desired, a recommendation for action.” Submissions are due May 2.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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