Speaking Science to Power: Providing S&T Advice to Governments

This presentation discusses the opportunities and challenges for scientists and technologists in
advising government policy-makers on science and technology for policy and policy for science
and technology. It draws on the author’s five decades of experience as an academic engaging
U.S. and non-U.S. governments on science and technology issues, most of it in parallel with an
academic career but also, from January 2009 to January 2017, as President Obama’s Science
Advisor and the Senate-confirmed Director of the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy. Considerable attention will be given to the contrasts between science and
technology policy under Obama versus under Trump, including suggestions for dealing with the
particular challenges posed by the latter.