Departments
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Week of 1 October 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 8 |
Feature
Article
BU researchers lobby for science
By Eric McHenry
Sherri Godlin Stephan, whose experiments yield data on the way our solar system moves through the galaxy, is more than qualified to diagnose the problem she faces: it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that cuts in NASA's budget threaten her research at many levels.
Under pressure to stay beneath spending caps imposed by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, Congress has recently been considering a reduction in NASA's funds. Stephan (GRS'00), a Ph.D. candidate at the CAS Center for Space Physics, is understandably troubled.
"At the center," she says, "almost all our money comes from either NASA or the National Science Foundation. My own research project involves rockets and is funded through the NASA Saturn Rocket Program. NASA pays for equipment, materials, instruments -- everything. And on top of all that, I have a fellowship grant from NASA for my graduate study."
Hoping to persuade those with fingers on the federal purse strings that her work is worth the expense, Stephan traveled to Washington, D.C., for a September 21 and 22 lobbying effort. The Science Coalition, a consortium of some 400 organizations dedicated to strengthening the federal government's support of university-based scientific research, sponsored the event. Scholars from more than 40 universities joined representatives of businesses, science organizations, and chambers of commerce on Capitol Hill for a series of presentations and meetings with members of Congress and the Clinton administration, including White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
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Carol Simpson (left), Sherri
Godlin Stephan, and Harlan Spence recently
represented BU at a Science Coalition-sponsored
lobbying event in Washington, D.C. They are holding
an actual-size model of a nanosatellite designed by
Spence and a team of investigators from the CAS
Center for Space Physics. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
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"At most of the meetings," Stephan says, "we each had 30 or 45 seconds to describe the work we were doing. Then the people we were addressing could ask questions or ask for more details. We all tried to talk about how federal funding affects us. We wanted to drive home the fact that basic research is very important, and should be funded at all levels."
"Whenever there was a situation with not much time," adds Simpson, "I handed it straight over to the young folks. It was really their day."
Choosing Science: Invest in the Future as the event's theme, the coalition made young researchers like Spence and Stephan focal points of its presentations. Supporting the work of these emerging scientists, the coalition contends, will over time yield benefits that should not be forgone in the interest of short-term fiscal expediency.
"It's a long-term investment," says Simpson, who is BU's representative on the Science Coalition steering committee. "The United States is reaping the benefits now of investments that were made 30, 40, and 50 years ago in the basic sciences. To cut off funding now is doing our children and grandchildren a disservice."
Spence leads a group of BU researchers that is developing, with support from the Air Force and NASA, one to three ultralight nanosatellites. The project, called Constellation Pathfinder, is meant to demonstrate the feasibility of using an armada of such nanosatellites to get a complex, three-dimensional image of the earth's magnetosphere. BU was one of 10 universities selected through competition to build the sophisticated satellites, which weigh one kilogram or less.
"I carried an actual-size mockup of our nanosatellite into every office we visited," Spence says of his experience at the event. "It immediately attracted attention, in part because of its small size. One congressman interrupted his introductory remarks by exclaiming, 'What's that?' And there was more excitement when people learned that this was not a scaled model of a larger craft, but the future of nanosatellites, which you can literally hold in your hands."
Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine and Tufts University President John DiBiaggio led the coalition's Massachusetts contingent, which included representatives from those two schools, BU, and MIT. Although the fate of funding for university-based research remains uncertain as Congress continues to deliberate over next year's budget, Simpson says she believes the event was a small victory for the sciences.
"I think the congressmen and the staffers were very positively influenced by the overwhelming support we showed," she says. "It was such a concerted effort, and they were impressed by that. It's not an everyday occurrence.
"Members of the New England delegation in Congress clearly understand the value of education in science," she adds. "As well they should. It's our bread and butter here in Massachusetts."