Where Do I Think Things Are Going in Science Research, Education and Funding, and Why Should Anyone

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Where Do I Think Things Are Going in Science
Research, Education and Funding, and Why Should
Anyone Care?

• There go my people, and I must follow - for I
  am their leader

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Research CorporationAmericas First Foundation
for the Advancement of Science

• Jim Gentile, President
• Research Corporation

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Research CorporationAmericas First Foundation
for the Advancement of Science

• Transforming science in the 21st century
• Inspire innovative transformative research
• Support funding, mentoring metrics
• Innovate new partnerships for success
• Advance via positive negative outcomes
  of high-risk research

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The Walls of Science

• Something there is that doesnt love a wall, that
  sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and
  spills the upper boulders in the sun, and makes
  gaps even two can pass
• Before I built a wall Id ask to know what I was
  walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like
  to give offence. Something there is that doesnt
  love a wall, that wants it down
• Robert Frost, Mending Wall

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Consequence of Walls
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Science at the Interface

• Massively parallel data acquisition is creating
  vast databases that are potentially highly
  informative.
• Science is being driven through the use
  sophisticated instrumentation rooted in the
  physical sciences.
• Concepts, models, and theories are becoming more
  quantitative.
• Complex systems are moving to center stage.
• The connections between the life sciences, the
  physical sciences, computational science,
  mathematics and engineering are becoming deeper
  and richer.

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Comments from Sir Paul Nurse(July, 2007)

• Great Ideas of Biology
• Life as Chemistry
• Chemical microenvironments of cells
• Biological Organization
• Information packaging and exchange
• Systems Biology
• Complex systems demand understanding a less
  common sense world

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Science Drivers(APS)

• Developing quantum technologies
• Understanding complex systems
• Applying physics to the life sciences
• Creating new materials
• Exploring the universe
• Unifying the forces of nature

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Science Drivers(ACS)

• Understand the chemistry of living systems in
  detail
• Develop therapies to cure untreatable diseases
• Develop self-assembly for the synthesis and
  manufacturing of complex systems and materials
• Understand the complex chemistry of the
  environment
• Attract the best and the brightest young students
  into the chemical sciences, to help meet these
  challenges
• Communicate effectively to the general public the
  contributions that chemistry and chemical
  engineering make to society

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Science Drivers(NRC)

• Understanding biomolecular machines
• Understanding gene recognition and signal
  transduction
• Understanding mechanics and spatial structure of
  cells
• Understanding the origin of self-replicating
  systems
• Harnessing the synthetic capacity of life
• Understanding and predicting protein folding
• Understanding biomolecular machines and processes
• Build a strong scientific workforce for the
  future

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Implications of Complex Research
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Connections/Collaborations Must Happen
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Collaboration An Indispensable Ingredient for
Innovation

• A recently conducted Global CEO Study by IBM took
  a comprehensive, global look at innovation.
• 76 per cent of CEOs thought that external
  collaboration is key to innovation.
• This contrasts greatly with their view of
  internal RD, which only 17 per cent of CEOs
  cited as a major source of innovation and new
  ideas.
• Ginni Rometty, Senior Vice President, IBM Global
  Business Services CEO Today

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The Collaboration Gap

• However, of those CEOs who viewed collaboration
  (internal and/or external) was valuable and
  important, less than half report collaborations
  actually taking place in their organization (thus
  a gap between intent and action)
• Collaboration and partnering is "theoretically
  easy," but "practically hard to do."
• Collaboration requires serious intent.
• Having a few beers together is not
  collaboration.
• Collaboration requires discipline
• Collaborations need to be encourated, affirmed
  and rewarded as part of an institutional plan

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Things That Can Catalyze Innovative,
Boundary-Crossing Research

• Collaborative Researchers must
• Think broadly, act personally and manage the
  innovation mix
• Resist falling back on traditional comfort zones
• Make the research model deeply different
• Pay particular attention to areas of the
  research where no one is actively innovating.
• Force an outside look - every time.
• Push the research team to work with outsiders
  more, making it first systematic and then, a part
  of your culture
• Ignite innovation thorough integration of
  science and technology
• Use technology as an innovation catalyst

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The Dawn of Networked Science
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Beyond Collaboration Boundaries

• Goldcorp, Inc.
• a contest to attract external collaborators.
• It posted geological data for one of its
  high-grade gold mines on the Web, challenging the
  worlds geologists to find gold. Some 1,400
  prospectors from 51 countries responded, and the
  company drilled the first four of the winners
  top five targets and struck gold on each one. The
  winning geologists never even visited the mine.
• According to a recent VNUNews.com news story,
  even physical collaboration no longer depends on
  being in the same location. In 2005, Australian
  scientists performed microsurgery on cells
  located on the other side of the world in
  California.
• Collaborating on a massive scale can also involve
  computing power, not just brainpower. The World
  Community Grid is using aggregated capacity from
  over 270,000 devices volunteered by individuals
  and organizations to study human proteome folding
  and design new anti-HIV drugs.

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So is this science of the future?
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Give up all hope of a better past" - William
Lyons
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So How is Education Impacted?
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The Universe of Science Majors
The Universe
The Universe of All College Students
The Real Universe of Education
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Bio2010

• An increasing number of todays college faculty
  are incorporating inquiry-based teaching and
  learning into their courses
• Integration of research and teaching is critical
• The main intent is for students to learn the same
  way that scientists learn through research
• Ask questions
• Make observations
• Take measurements
• Analyze data
• Report process to integrate new information
• This process is adaptable for teaching in
  classrooms, laboratories and the field
• Essential features of classroom inquiry (use of
  evidence, framing of questions, etc.) are listed
  in the NRC 2000 report, Inquiry and the National
  Science Education Standards, written for
  elementary and high school science teachers.

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Scientific Teaching

• the content should be scientific
• the classroom should reflect the process of
  science
• the classroom should capture the rigor, iterative
  nature, and spirit of discovery of science at its
  best
• the approach to teaching should be scientific

Handelsman et al., 2004 Science 304521-522.
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Example in Biomechanics

• Animal Locomotion
• Philosophy
• The course covers principles of how organisms
  move in their environment. Skeletal support,
  muscular, neural, energy systems are considered.
  Students will form design teams that will assist
  NASA in the design of Biomorphic Explorers (small
  robots) that will travel to Mars or Europa. The
  design will be inspired by the physiology learned
  throughout the semester.
•  

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Geckos and Students
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So is Undergraduate Research Really Research That
Makes a Difference?
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So How About A Cockroach on Mars?
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Scientific Teaching

• Study teaching methods choose those that work
• Approach teaching with rigor and critical
  analysis
• Set objectives, identify challenges
• Evaluate learning use regular, in-class
  assessment
• Use an iterative process modify teaching based
  on assessment, assess, modify

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Assessment

• Active Assessment
• Integrates principles from active learning and
  assessment
• Active learning
• Students are actively engaged in learning
• Assessment
• Provides feedback to instructors and students
  about learning

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Principles of Active Assessment

• Based on what we know about how people learn
• Ongoing, iterative process
• Provides feedback to both students and
  instructors about learning
• Creates safe space for students to check anxiety
  at the door, to take responsibility for their own
  learning, and to solve problems that challenge
  their world view

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Walls
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Headlines

• Nature
• April 2008
• The Path to Productive Partnerships
• Research funders and Institutions do too little
  to sustain the collaborations that they encourage
• Genome Technology
• March 2008
• Team Science v. Tenure
• Large-scale biology demands collaboration. So
  why does academia still discourage it?

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Barriers to Research and Education at the
Interface of Disciplines

• Existing Institutional Structures
• ..university disciplinary structures organize
  research around departments, and there is a
  tyranny of disciplines. K. Keller
• Tenure and Promotion Criteria
• ..university promotion tenure are based upon
  recognized accomplishment of individuals.
  Professors are expected to run their own show.
  J. Hopfield
• Education and Training
• .. The problem of narrow specialization and
  segmented curricula found in undergraduate
  courses is too often perpetuated in graduate
  school.
• J. Serum
• Communication
• ..often, physics and chemistry departments are
  not in the same building as biology. In many
  cases, medical schools are even in a separate
  city and engineering colleges set apart as
  well..such things limit productive collisions.
  T. Cech
• Funding Organizations Peer Review
• ..the peer review system is broken. When you can
  only fund grants at the 10th percentile, the
  peer-review process is likely to become
  conservative and study sections try to find
  reasons to not fund a proposal. It is then
  easier to nitpick interdisciplinary proposals to
  death. G. Petsko

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A True Test of Leadership
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Overcoming Walls
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Ignorance Is Not Bliss

• A Comment From Steve Forbes Steve Forbes,
  12.23.02 Risk-taking is the crucial element
  for improving our standard of living. Most new
  ideas strike most people as irrational, undoable,
  utopian. And most of the time the skeptics are
  right. But in a democratic capitalist system,
  seemingly improbable ideas can come to fruition.
  Even if the pioneers don't always reap the
  rewards, other able executives will develop the
  ideas, and all of us will benefit.
• Yet all too many academics, politicos,
  bureaucrats and even businesspeople don't
  understand that risk-taking is the wellspring of
  our progress.

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Options

• Alternative Institutional Structures
• .. dont think there are any magic bullets.
  Funding is needed to provide support mechanisms
  for interdisciplinary centers.but you also have
  to give university departments a stake in the
  success K. Keller
• Tenure, Promotion Career Transitions
• ..in companies at the end of the day, projects
  only work if you have a whole bunch of people
  working in teams.one of the biggest differences
  between science in universities and the
  commercial world is teamwork. E. Penhoet
• ..at Janelia farm, if someone is the middle
  author and contributes their talent, energy and
  innovation to a project, they will be held up
  and recognized. T. Cech
• Education and Training
• ..post-docs in the dual mentor program at UCSD
  are highly successful in finding jobs.because
  they can now talk two languages. J. Onuchic
• Fostering Communication
• ..at the University of Oregon disciplines have
  been mixed for yearsI am a chemist in a physics
  building and down the hall from biologists.weve
  gotten so used to it we do not think about it any
  more. G. Richmond
• Funding
• ..in recent years, private foundations have
  continued to stake out emerging fields where they
  can make a differencebecause private
  foundations, compared to federal agencies, are
  able to move more quickly to address needs and
  take advantage of opportunities. J. Gentile
• ..federal agencies are seeking to better
  coordinate funding programs and to establish
  programs that span the agencies. One such
  example at the interface of the physical and life
  sciences is the Collaborative Research in
  Computational Neuroscience Interagency program.
  J. Gentile

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Goal - Facilitating Interdisciplinary Science
Research at PUI and R1 Institutions Possible
Mechanisms with some comments on each

• An example of what implementation planning might
  look like for a future program initiative is
  shown below.
• Seed Funding. Absolutely necessary.
• Shared Facilities/Personnel. Though this sounds
  good though often such programs reflect ways of
  moving things forward without, necessarily,
  rocking the boat or changing the status quo.
• Training in New Fields. This is important,
  particularly for established faculty seeking to
  move farther away from the center of their
  discipline. Sabbatical support programs would
  help here.
• Longer Term Programs. Valuable, but for larger
  foundations only. Smaller foundations cannot
  lock up too many funds in this manner.
• Equality of Leadership for PIs. This is not a
  problem for foundations, but it is a real
  bug-a-boo for university TP committees.
  Happens in Physics often, particular on large
  collaborative initiatives using big toys.
• Partnerships between Institutions and Agencies.
  This is an important avenue to pursue. This is
  particularly effective for a targeted initiative.

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Goal - Facilitating Interdisciplinary Science
Research at PUI and R1 Institutions Possible
Mechanisms with some comments on
each(continued)

• Research and Education. The two must be tied in
  some way.
• Grants for Interdisciplinary Teaching (and
  Curriculum). Important to train the next
  generation of scientists to be unafraid of
  interdisciplinary research adventures.
• Meetings. Special meetings for catalytic reasons
  could prove very valuable. Using the framework
  of the Gordon Conferences is a possibility.
• Sabbaticals. This could be a substantially
  important way of moving and training faculty
  into new, innovative modes of cross disciplinary
  research.
• Criteria for Proposal Submission Review. This
  is critical. Without such criteria any funding
  agency could be hamstrung with the deluge of what
  could come under t he door and spend most of the
  time doing triage. For review needs, it is
  important to have a review process that clearly
  understands the goals and aims of the
  interdisciplinary initiatives. Thus, just
  sending proposals for review to individuals or
  structures that work in the same old way just
  does not make sense. Thus, significant
  structural change within a foundation must occur
  to make this happen.
• Current Programs in funding should take all of
  the above into consideration

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Academic Structures
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Books and Other Things
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Organizations

• Research CorporationAmericas First Foundation
  for the Advancement of Science

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Investments in Innovation Institutes
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Investments in Innovation
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So the Bottom line is to Form Unique Partnerships
to Move Science/Science Education
..with the willingness to take risks, to build
upon rather than remain cemented in tradition and
to embrace, and learn from, failure
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Three Final Thoughts

• Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."
• - Yoda
• "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
• - Walt Disney
• "If everything seems under control, you're just
  not going fast enough."
• - Mario Andretti