Guiding Physics: The Managerial Ecosystems Supporting US Scientific Research
ORAL · Invited
Abstract
Ever since Vannevar Bush's 1945 report, "Science: the Endless Frontier," research in the United States has benefitted from mutual partnerships between the US government and academe. The government supplied financial support essential to doing the best possible science and trusted scientists to spend the funds wisely on research deemed in the national interest. For decades these partnerships worked well, generating scientific results that are the envy of the world.
A few large corporations such as AT&T and IBM also managed to support world-class physics research. Despite the short-term requirements of earning profits for their investors, they were able to embrace the long-term perspectives required to do basic research in industrial labs.
In both settings, Ph.D. scientists were deeply involved in the management structures that determined what research to pursue and how best to implement it. Political and corporate leaders provided overall guidance, but the decisions and management details were left to knowledgeable scientists who better understood the specific research needs.
These partnerships began to break down in recent decades, notably in the collapse of the Superconducting Super Collider project. Part of the problem was the growing complexity of multibillion-dollar projects, which academic scientists have been deemed unqualified to manage.
More recently, a different problem has emerged. The administrations of Donald Trump have demonstrated outright disdain for science, attempting to impose draconian budget cuts on, for example, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Though Congress has rejected these cuts, it lacks the power to enforce its will upon the executive branch, which can rescind the funds or neglect to spend them. And the current administration has attacked the dedicated scientist-managers who work at the heart of such federal agencies, firing many of then and putting final decision powers in the hands of political agents. If not countered, such anti-scientific policies and practices may prove to be the ruination of US science.
A few large corporations such as AT&T and IBM also managed to support world-class physics research. Despite the short-term requirements of earning profits for their investors, they were able to embrace the long-term perspectives required to do basic research in industrial labs.
In both settings, Ph.D. scientists were deeply involved in the management structures that determined what research to pursue and how best to implement it. Political and corporate leaders provided overall guidance, but the decisions and management details were left to knowledgeable scientists who better understood the specific research needs.
These partnerships began to break down in recent decades, notably in the collapse of the Superconducting Super Collider project. Part of the problem was the growing complexity of multibillion-dollar projects, which academic scientists have been deemed unqualified to manage.
More recently, a different problem has emerged. The administrations of Donald Trump have demonstrated outright disdain for science, attempting to impose draconian budget cuts on, for example, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Though Congress has rejected these cuts, it lacks the power to enforce its will upon the executive branch, which can rescind the funds or neglect to spend them. And the current administration has attacked the dedicated scientist-managers who work at the heart of such federal agencies, firing many of then and putting final decision powers in the hands of political agents. If not countered, such anti-scientific policies and practices may prove to be the ruination of US science.
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Publication: Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson and Adrienne W. Kolb, "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider." (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015).
Presenters
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Michael Riordan
- University of California, Santa Cruz