FAS president argues for a renewed academic and U.S. policy alliance

Henry Kelly, right, president of the Federation of American Scientists, speaks with Peter Lepage, professor and chair of Cornell's physics department, before Kelly's Feb. 17 talk. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Lissa Harris

Science and policy, once close allies, have become disturbingly estranged from one another, according to Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists.

In a talk this week at Cornell, Kelly described a breakdown of communication between scientists and policymakers that, given the technological challenges faced by U.S. society, could be disastrous for the nation.

Kelly spoke about "Science and Policy: A Vexed (And Essential) Alliance," Monday, Feb. 17 in the Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall.

"There was once a decent alliance between university scientists and Washington, but it seems to have fallen apart," said Kelly. "Solving this problem is not optional -- it's absolutely essential."

The fault, Kelly said, lies both with Washington and with the academy. In a time of highly charged partisan politics, politicians are increasingly unwilling to look to experts for guidance on technical matters or to seek answers to difficult questions. Likewise, universities offer few incentives or career paths for scientists interested in becoming involved with policy or public life.

Many government entities involving scientists in federal policy matters have been eliminated in the past decade. Kelly laid out a brief, bleak history of the scientific exodus from the nation's capital: the Office of Technology Assessment was eliminated in 1995, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was dissolved in 1997.

Advisory groups assembled to provide insight on particular scientific issues have also become increasingly politicized, said Kelly. As an example, he cited the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, a group that advises the Centers for Disease Control. The Bush administra-tion's appointment of industry-supported scientists to the committee made national news last year and has raised concerns that the members of such advisory groups are being chosen on the basis of their ideological commitments rather than their scientific expertise.

The quality of the scientific evidence presented at congressional hearings, Kelly said, has also dropped precipitously.

Part of the problem, said Kelly, is that it is difficult for academic scientists to find ways to engage in public policy debates. Many of the most publicly active scientists, he noted, are Nobel laureates -- people who already have reached the pinnacle of their careers and who no longer have to worry about how taking time away from the laboratory will affect their professional lives.

"Most scientists have difficulty getting credit for something that is related to policy work, whether it be writing a graduate thesis or receiving tenure or promotion. There isn't really a home for that in the university."

The solution, said Kelly, is for universities to be proactive. Universities must find ways to provide opportunities for its scientists to become involved in public policy and reward those who do.

"There's absolutely no possibility of progress without the universities taking the initiative," said Kelly. "If you sit and wait for Washington to come and ask you something, it's never going to happen.

The Federation of American Scientists (formerly the Federation of Atomic Scientists) was founded in 1945 by members of the Manhattan Project. Its board of sponsors includes over half of the United States' living Nobel laureates.

While it was founded to advise the government on matters of nuclear weaponry and work toward nuclear disarmament, the federation has been active in many areas of socially relevant science, including energy, agriculture and medicine.

Kelly's talk was given as part of the American Physical Society's Leo Szilard lecture series. Szilard, a member of the Manhattan Project and one of the founders of the Federation of Atomic Scientists, was a tireless proponent of nuclear disarmament.