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What’s Ahead
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| President Biden visited Ohio last week for the groundbreaking of Intel’s new semiconductor manufacturing complex and to spotlight connections the new CHIPS and Science Act is aiming to build between technological and industrial development. This week, Biden heads to Boston to call attention to signature policy initiatives in biomedicine. (Image credit – The White House) |
Biden Announcing ARPA–H Director, Biotechnology Initiative
President Biden is traveling to Boston on Monday to visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, where he will announce his selection of biologist Renee Wegrzyn to be first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Wegrzyn is currently a vice president of business development for the bioengineering company Ginkgo Bioworks and previously served as a program manager in the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That office was created by Arati Prabhakar, Biden’s nominee to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, when she was DARPA’s director during the Obama administration. Congress has provided ARPA–H with initial funding of $1 billion, though it is still negotiating legislation that will settle matters such as its relationship to the National Institutes of Health.
Biden is also announcing the launch of a National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative that Congress authorized as part of the new CHIPS and Science Act. The initiative will encompass R&D, manufacturing, and workforce development activities across a broad set of federal agencies, which will announce their first steps on Wednesday at a White House summit. Monday’s event in Boston will also include an update on Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, which aims to cut the death rate from cancer at least in half within the next 25 years. The moonshot framing invokes the challenge President Kennedy issued in 1961 to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of that decade. Biden will mark the 60th anniversary of Kennedy’s later speech at Rice University, at which he famously said that the U.S. chose to go to the Moon and do other challenging things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Setting the principle for more recent, less lavishly funded technology “shots,” Kennedy observed in the same sentence that the moon landing goal would “serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”
Senators to Probe Commercial Potential of Fusion Energy
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday on the government’s role in supporting the commercialization of fusion energy, a topic that has attracted significant interest amid ballooning venture-capital investment and promising technology advances. The Energy Act of 2020 directed DOE to begin working toward the development of a fusion power industry in the U.S., and DOE declared earlier this year it will aim to complete at least one pilot plant in the early 2030s. These developments have not yet translated to significant funding boosts, but the new CHIPS and Science Act recommends Congress immediately increase funding for DOE’s fusion R&D program from its current level of $713 million to more than $1 billion, which would include a significant hike in U.S. contributions to the ITER fusion facility under construction in France. Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-WV) visited ITER with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in March and has spoken enthusiastically about the potential of fusion energy since then.
Research Security Panel to Discuss CHIPS Act, China
The National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable of the National Academies is convening on Thursday and Friday. It is the roundtable’s first public meeting since President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act and it will hear a briefing on the legislation by Toby Smith, vice president for policy at the Association of American Universities, which has published a summary of the act’s research security provisions. The roundtable will also discuss research security compliance challenges faced by smaller academic institutions with the vice presidents for research from the University of South Alabama, American University, and the University of Notre Dame. The meeting will conclude with a discussion of “challenges from China” featuring Denis Simon, senior advisor to the president of Duke University for China affairs; Mary Gallagher, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at University of Michigan; and Lora Weiss, senior vice president for research at Penn State University. The roundtable is gearing up to hold a workshop sometime this year that will reexamine the U.S. approach toward classifying research in light of policymakers’ concerns about China.
Schmidt-Backed Project Spotlighting Geopolitics of Technology
On Friday, the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) is hosting a day-long summit on how the U.S. and allied countries can “ensure that emerging technologies help advance freedom, strengthen democracies, and protect the rules-based order.” The project was launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in 2021, shortly after he chaired a congressionally chartered commission on artificial intelligence that called for major reforms to U.S. technology policy. The follow-on effort is inspired by the Special Studies Project that was organized by Nelson Rockefeller during the Cold War and led by Henry Kissinger. Kissinger and Schmidt will headline the summit, speaking alongside various current and former officials from Democratic and Republican administrations. SCSP CEO Ylli Bajraktari served with Schmidt on the AI commision and the two published an op-ed last week calling for the U.S. to pursue a “techno-industrial strategy” in response to competition from China, and the project has just published a lengthy report titled, “Mid-Decade Challenges to National Competitiveness.” Schmidt has also sought to advance his vision for technology and competitiveness by sponsoring the Quad Fellowship through his Schmidt Futures philanthropic initiative, supporting STEM graduate education for students from the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan. He also has close connections with the America’s Frontier Fund venture capital organization, which makes investments in technology areas deemed critical to national competitiveness.
NSF Panel to Examine Challenges Facing Antarctic Science
The National Science Foundation’s polar programs advisory panel is meeting on Thursday and Friday, beginning with a discussion of plans for field research campaigns amid the pandemic. NSF greatly restricted access to Antarctica at the pandemic’s outset given the limited healthcare infrastructure there and the difficulty of evacuating personnel, which has led to large backlogs of research projects and a rethink of infrastructure upgrades that were underway when the pandemic hit. Also on the agenda is the status of design work for a new Antarctic research ship that will replace the aging vessel Nathaniel Palmer. The panel has been providing NSF with input on community priorities for capabilities the replacement ship should have, but the agency has opted not to pursue some of these in making design tradeoffs. Finally, the meeting follows the public release of an NSF-commissioned study that revealed sexual harassment and assault are common at the agency’s facilities in Antarctica. The study is not specifically listed on the draft agenda but it is apt to be discussed at a session led by the panel’s subcommittee on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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In Case You Missed It
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| The Raft River Geothermal Plant in Idaho (Image credit – DOE) |
DOE Aims to Slash Cost of Geothermal With Latest ‘Earthshot’
The Department of Energy announced last week it is launching an “Enhanced Geothermal Shot” as part of its series of Energy Earthshots, which set ambitious price and capability goals for clean energy technologies. The new initiative aims to reduce the cost of geothermal energy by 90% to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035, building on DOE efforts such as the FORGE test site in Utah. The Biden administration is seeking to nearly double funding for DOE’s geothermal R&D program to about $200 million, and this year the White House added geothermal to its list of cross-agency R&D priorities. Congress has recently provided only modest funding increases to DOE’s geothermal program, though the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is providing a one-time $84 million boost, which will fund four demonstration projects. The Enhanced Geothermal Shot is the fourth Earthshot DOE has announced over the past year, joining efforts focused on hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon dioxide removal, and it plans to launch another dedicated to offshore wind.
DOE Issues Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap
The Department of Energy released an “Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap” last week that lays out strategies for reducing carbon emissions from the manufacturing sector. It focuses on five key industries that together account for roughly 15% of total U.S. emissions: chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, iron and steel manufacturing, cement production, and the food and beverage industry. The roadmap also identifies improving energy efficiency, electrifying industrial processes, transitioning to low-carbon fuels and feedstocks, and deploying carbon capture technologies as “technological pillars” for reducing emissions across these sectors. It goes on to recommend agendas for each sector, emphasizing both early-stage R&D and commercial-scale demonstration projects, as well as efforts that cut across sectors, such as developing process heating methods and improving modeling and system analysis capabilities.
David Crane Steps In to Lead DOE Technology Demonstration Office
The Department of Energy announced last week it has appointed David Crane director of its new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. Last year’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is appropriating $21.5 billion to the office over six years to fund large-scale projects in areas such as hydrogen production, carbon capture, grid-scale energy storage, and advanced nuclear reactors. The Inflation Reduction Act will provide almost $6 billion more to the office for projects to reduce industrial carbon emissions. Crane was CEO of utility company NRG Energy from 2003 to 2015 and became known for advocating a transition to clean energy sources, and he was most recently CEO of Climate Real Impact Solutions, a clean energy investment firm. In August, President Biden nominated him to be DOE under secretary for infrastructure, a newly reconfigured position that oversees the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and several other offices focused on energy technology deployment. However, it is unclear how long it will take the Senate to confirm him to that job and there is substantial pressure on the administration to implement its new energy initiatives quickly. Last week, John Podesta, a fixture in Democratic political circles, arrived at the White House to oversee administration-wide implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s expansive measures to promote clean energy innovation and adoption.
Coastal Science Expert Named Head of NOAA Research
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week that Steve Thur will lead the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) starting early next month. An expert in coastal science and management, Thur joined NOAA in 2003 after receiving a doctorate in marine policy from the University of Delaware. He has held various roles within the National Ocean Service, including most recently director of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. With an annual budget of about $650 million, OAR oversees NOAA’s weather and climate research, ocean exploration efforts, and 11 research laboratories. It has been led on an acting basis by oceanographer Cisco Werner since its previous director Craig McLean retired in April.
Physicist Confirmed as DHS Science and Technology Chief
On Sept. 8, the Senate confirmed Dimitri Kusnezov by voice vote for the role of Department of Homeland Security under secretary for science and technology. The under secretary oversees the department’s Science and Technology Directorate, which currently has a budget of almost $900 million and focuses on issues such as critical infrastructure resilience and detection of chemical, biological, and radiological weapons. This is the first time the position has had a Senate-confirmed occupant since the end of the Obama administration. Kusnezov comes to the role after spending two decades in various positions at the Department of Energy, including chief scientist for the National Nuclear Security Administration and most recently high-level jobs focused on artificial intelligence. He holds a doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics from Princeton University and before joining DOE he was a member of the physics faculty at Yale University.
Academies Report Finds Ligado Signals Can Interfere With GPS
The National Academies released a report last week analyzing the risk that a communications network the company Ligado is building with Federal Communications Commission approval will harmfully interfere with the Global Positioning System. It concludes most GPS applications would not be seriously affected, but that there would be interference with high-precision receivers that are more than about a decade old, as well as with certain satellite services provided by the company Iridium Communications. The report states receivers can be built that are robust against interference from Ligado signals, but notes it may not be practical to implement effective mitigation measures at “operationally relevant timescales or at reasonable cost.” In addition, the report criticizes two “prevailing approaches” for evaluating harmful interference concerns that are respectively based on a signal-to-noise interference protection criterion and a device-by-device measurement of the GPS position error, finding they do not provide “analytical, repeatable, or straightforward” evaluative criteria.
The Defense Department, which sponsored the report at the direction of Congress, declared that the findings vindicate its prior warnings about potential disruptions to military activities from the Ligado network. In its own statement, Ligado framed the report as bolstering its position, observing that, while “some very old and poorly designed” equipment may require updating, no federal agency has yet taken advantage of a program the company established to upgrade or replace affected equipment. The report was assembled by an 11-member committee chaired by Michael McQuade, a physicist and former industry executive who served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the Obama administration.
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Events This Week
All times are Eastern Daylight Time, unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement.
Monday, September 12
Tuesday, September 13
Wednesday, September 14
Thursday, September 15
Friday, September 16
Sunday, September 18
Monday, September 19
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Opportunities USGS Climate Research Network Hiring Justice Leader
The U.S. Geological Survey is hiring a national leader for climate justice activities across its 10 Climate Adaptation Science Centers. The leader will work to expand the network’s justice activities and serve as a subject matter expert for agency-wide justice initiatives. Candidates with an advanced degree in a related field such as environmental science, public policy, or social work are preferred. Applications are due Sept. 28.
NASA Goddard Hiring Director for Sciences and Exploration
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is hiring a director for its Sciences and Exploration Directorate to manage a “broad program of experimental and theoretical research” in astrophysics, space physics, planetary physics, and Earth science. Candidates should have significant scientific leadership experience, including with activities such as long-range planning, budget management, and mission proposal preparation. Applications are due Oct. 3.
NSF Hiring Director for Cyberinfrastructure Office
The National Science Foundation is hiring a director for the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure within its computer science directorate. The office supports the development of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure tools such as supercomputers, software and programming environments, and large-scale data storage and management systems, as well as education and training programs. Candidates with a doctoral degree strongly preferred. Applications are due Oct. 11.
Know of an upcoming science policy event either inside or outside the Beltway? Email us at fyi@aip.org.
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