“We will restore science to its rightful place ... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”
In these and other excerpts from his inauguration speech Tuesday, President Barack Obama outlined one of the philosophies of his new administration that could lead to an increasing governmental emphasis on “maintaining the pipeline of innovation that exists at universities,” including but not limited to developments in the core sciences, University Vice President for Research Tom Skalak said. This increased emphasis on — and funding for — various research and academic efforts, Skalak said, could benefit several University projects.
Skalak noted that though the new administration has just taken office, detailed descriptions on federal Web sites explain the areas the new administration may focus on, specifically concerning Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package.
Among those foci are higher education and the “fundamental, discovery-oriented research” core sciences, Skalak said.
Skalak added that the new administration’s goals, particularly in regards to the proposed economic stimulus, may aid some of the University’s capital construction projects, including the renovation of Garrett Hall to house the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the installation of new heating and air conditioning systems for the Medical School’s Jordan Hall facility, which Skalak said is the University’s largest medical research building.
“That’s an immediate project that would be necessary to keep state-of-the-art research moving forward,” Skalak said. He noted that funds could also go toward improving the Chemistry Building’s teaching laboratories, which would allow cutting-edge teaching experiments to occur in the chemistry program.
“Right now the new administration just took over ... so what we believe will happen is a series of discussions,” Skalak said, noting that these talks may include, among other participants, state and federal government officials and for-profit and not-for-profit institutions such as universities. Additional institutions and interest groups conducting and representing research efforts throughout the country could also participate, Skalak added.
This dialogue among groups, Skalak noted, would not be limited to the sciences and would have wide-ranging effects in various fields, including information technology, the arts, social sciences and the humanities.
Overall, some of the basic areas of interest expected to receive funding from the new administration are sustainability, health information technology, energy conservation and financial security and information assurance, Skalak said.
Explaining that innovations in those areas would connect to wide-ranging challenges such as the search for new energy, Skalak said such projects “drive job creation and they help drive the pursuit of happiness, as Thomas Jefferson would say.” He added that he believes Obama has “made a clear link between the basic values of society and the mechanism that we use to achieve that.”
University Assoc. History Prof. Brian Balogh, who is also chair of the Governing America in a Global Era program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, said the politics of science has not been particularly controversial in many respects. He noted, however, that there have been debates about issues as wide-ranging as stem cell research, abortion and the occasional episodes of scandal within the scientific process.
“Probably where science comes closest to drawing public attention is in the [Food and Drug Administration] ... as well as the [Environmental Protection Agency],” Balogh said, adding that one may find controversies there regarding agriculture and pollution.
While noting that Obama’s inauguration remarks may have been directed toward former President George W. Bush’s own decisions on topics such as stem cell research and climate change, Balogh said he foresees an emphasis primarily on using science to support economic sectors.
“We know what Obama has talked about — what his transition has talked [about],” Balogh said. “He has consistently talked about replacing faith or belief with the kind of analysis that’s more solidly grounded in science.”
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