In the Spotlight

Expanding Biofuel Production - Sustainability and the Transition to Advanced Biofuels - Lessons from the Upper Midwest for Sustainability
June 23-24, 2009, Madison, Wisconsin
An ad hoc committee will organize a workshop in June 2009 that will assess the sustainability impacts of expanding biofuel production at a regional level. Workshop participants will assess lessons learned from dramatic increases in corn based fuels and identify the implications of advanced biofuel production, examining feedstock production, refining, distribution and use. The objective of the workshop is to inform local, state and federal decision-makers and to suggest policies that can be developed to encourage more sustainable practices and to mitigate potentially adverse impacts on specific regions of the country as the U.S. transitions to the next generation of biofuels.

Geospatial Technologies for Reconnaissance, Response, and Mitigation of Disasters: Imagery and Beyond (PDF 221 KB)
June 23, 2009 from 11:00 am-12:00 noon at the State Department, Washington, DC
The Jefferson Science Fellows Distinguished Lecture Series on Current Issues in Science and Technology announces its next lecture at the State Department: “ Geospatial Technologies for Reconnaissance, Response, and Mitigation of Disasters: Imagery and Beyond" by Melba M. Crawford, PhD, Assistant Dean for Interdisciplinary Research, Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture and Director, Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing. This lecture takes place June 23, 2009 from 11:00am-12:00 noon. A Question and Answer Period will follow the presentation.

Opportunities and Challenges in the Emerging Field of Synthetic Biology: A Symposium
July 9-10, 2009, Washington, DC
Under the auspices of the U.S. National Academies, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Royal Society, an ad hoc committee will organize a symposium that will bring together the scientific, engineering, legal, and policy communities along with members of the public to explore the opportunities and challenges posed by the emerging field of synthetic biology. The overarching goals of the meeting are to help foster this new community of professionals, to frame the language of the discussion and the issues, to identify issues and areas for future study, and to educate the public and policy-makers about this emerging field. An unedited transcript of the symposium will be issued.

Science Engineering & Medicine: Working Toward a Better World - International Activities of the U.S. National Academies brochure (PDF 947 KB)
Operating under a congressional charter, the U.S. National Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that advise the federal government and public on matters of science, technology, and health by establishing committees of experts to address critical technical and policy issues. The Academies promotes the use of science, engineering, and medicine to enhance the security and well-being of people throughout the world and to ease disparities in human welfare. To accomplish this, it cooperates with partner organizations and scientific communities internationally. It also works to increase the capacity of both individual national academies and regional and global networks of academies to provide evidence-based advice to their governments, policy makers, and the public, thus strengthening and shaping policy and programs worldwide.

TurboNegotiator, a software tool meant to strategically address the challenges in negotiating industrial sponsored research agreements, is now available, in pilot version, to UIDP members. In development over the past two years, this version incorporates the feedback from the December UIDP meeting, organizes the questions in smaller sections, and allows multiple users (more than one from each party) to access a negotiation.

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward
The Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community released this prepublication at a public briefing at 1:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.
View the Report
View Press Release (PDF)
Opening Statement – Harry T. Edwards (PDF)
Opening Statement – Constantine Gatsonis (PDF)
Listen to the Briefing

Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty (prepublication: June 2009)
Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty presents new and surprising findings about career differences between female and male full-time, tenure-track, and tenured faculty in science, engineering, and mathematics at the nation's top research universities. Much of this congressionally mandated book is based on two unique surveys of faculty and departments at major U.S. research universities in six fields: biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, and physics. A departmental survey collected information on departmental policies, recent tenure and promotion cases, and recent hires in almost 500 departments. A faculty survey gathered information from a stratified, random sample of about 1,800 faculty on demographic characteristics, employment experiences, the allocation of institutional resources such as laboratory space, professional activities, and scholarly productivity. This book paints a timely picture of the status of female faculty at top universities, clarifies whether male and female faculty have similar opportunities to advance and succeed in academia, challenges some commonly held views, and poses several questions still in need of answers. This book will be of special interest to university administrators and faculty, graduate students, policy makers, professional and academic societies, federal funding agencies, and others concerned with the vitality of the U.S. research base and economy.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships: Summary of a Workshop (prepublication)
Sustainable development--meeting human needs while nurturing and restoring the planet's life support systems--requires a continuous process of scientific innovation, new knowledge and learning, and collaborative approaches to implementing technologies and policies. To address these challenges, different stakeholder groups are increasingly seeking to ally themselves through partnership, in order to implement projects, deliver services, establish secure funding mechanisms, and achieve on the ground results. Advocates of this collaborative approach point to the failure of governmental regulations, international commitments, or business as usual. However, skeptics often question the effectiveness of partnerships at achieving sustainable development goals and, in the absence of demonstrated results, wonder where partnerships are adding value. A symposium held in June 2008 and summarized in this volume, attempted to advance the dialogue on partnerships for sustainability in order to catalyze existing knowledge and inform future efforts. Ideas that came out of discussions at the symposium will help leaders in government, the private sector, foundations and NGOs, and universities, both in the United States and internationally, as they develop and participate in new partnerships for sustainability.

Countering Biological Threats: Challenges for the Department of Defense's Nonproliferation Program Beyond the Former Soviet Union (prepublication)
In response to a request from the U.S. Congress, this book examines how the unique experience and extensive capabilities of the Department of Defense (DOD) can be extended to reduce the threat of bioterrorism within developing countries outside the former Soviet Union (FSU). During the past 12 years, DOD has invested $800 million in reducing the risk from bioterrorism with roots in the states of the FSU. The program's accomplishments are many fold. The risk of bioterrorism in other countries is too great for DOD not to be among the leaders in addressing threats beyond the FSU. Taking into account possible sensitivities about a U.S. military presence, DOD should engage interested governments in about ten developing countries outside the FSU in biological threat reduction programs during the next five years. Whenever possible, DOD should partner with other organizations that have well established humanitarian reputations in the countries of interest. For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization should be considered as potential partners.

Global Security Engagement: A New Model for Cooperative Threat Reduction  (prepublication)
Requested by Congress, this report recommends that the White House lead the reformulation of Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs as an active, coordinated tool of foreign policy, engaging departments across the government along with NGOs and international organizations. The Department of Defense CTR programs should participate in these efforts by expanding into new activities, partnerships, and geographic locations. Greater flexibility and authority should be provided to improve timeliness and effectiveness. Also, given a heightened focus on partnerships and relationship-building, CTR programs will need new ways to gauge the success of their projects.

A Survey of Attitudes and Actions on Dual Use Research in the Life Sciences: A Collaborative Effort of the National Research Council and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (prepublication)
Over the last 50 years, rapidly expanding knowledge in the biological sciences has raised concerns over so-called "dual-use research," in which the same technologies that fuel scientific advances could also be misused to create biological weapons or for bioterrorism. Determining how to constrain these risks without slowing scientific progress is critical. The NRC conducted a survey with the American Association for the Advancement of Science to better understand life scientists’ attitudes about policies to address dual-use risks. The results suggest that there may be considerable support for approaches to oversight that rely on self-governance by the scientific community and that there is a need to clarify research activities of concern and provide guidance about what actions scientists can take to reduce risks. (with the Board on Life Sciences)