The National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation and a major science-policy advising group to the president and Congress, will meet on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus on Feb. 10.
The CU-Boulder visit includes a commission meeting by the NSB on 21st century education challenges in science, math and technology. The board also will attend a campus poster session that morning highlighting NSF-funded research underway at CU-Boulder.
The public meeting will be held from 12:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. in room 235 of the University Memorial Center. CU will provide a Web cast of the NSB hearing beginning at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 10.
The Feb. 10 meeting will focus in part on an NSB report issued last September and warning that the preeminence of the United States in science education has been slipping for two decades. "Not since the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite 47 years ago has the need to improve science and mathematics in America been as clear and urgent as it is today," according to the report.
More than 20 participants will be involved in roundtable and panel discussions during the afternoon session. They include NSB Chairman Warren Washington, also a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, CU President Hank Brown, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, (D-Colo.), former CU President and current NSB member CU President Emerita Elizabeth Hoffman and NSB Executive officer Michael Crosby.
The NSB is made up of 24 members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms. Members are selected for their national expertise in such fields as science, medicine, engineering, agriculture, education and public affairs.
Founded in 1950 to promote progress in science, advance national health prosperity and welfare and secure national defense, the NSF had a budget of $5.5 billion in fiscal year 2005. NSF was CU-Boulder's top federal funding agency in 2005 at $46.7 million for more than 250 new awards, ranking ahead of NASA ($44.5 million), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ($39.3 million) and the U.S. Department of Commerce ($26.5 million).
CU-Boulder received a total of $257.6 million in sponsored research in 2005. The CU system received a total of $630 million in sponsored research in 2005.
NSF annually provides the campus with a broad range of funding, from basic research and education in disciplines like physics, chemistry, biology and geology to departments like political science, sociology and education. The largest NSF grant currently in force on campus from NSF is a $15 million grant to JILA, a joint physics institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute for Standards and Technology, according to the CU-Boulder Office of Contracts and Grants.
Currently there are more than 500 NSF grants in force on the CU-Boulder campus with a total value of more than $200 million. Many involve postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates, said Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Fred Pampel.
"NSF grants have funded ground-breaking research on topics such as human tissue engineering, ultra-fast lasers, long-term changes in mountain ecology and the social response to natural disasters," Pampel said. "They also have helped us to give students experience in doing first-rate scientific research."
NSF funds a wide variety of environmental research efforts involving CU-Boulder faculty, staff and students, Pampel said. In 2005, NSF provided a six-year, $4.9 million renewal grant for CU-Boulder to administer the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research site adjacent to CU's Mountain Research Station, where faculty and students chart long-term changes related to climate and air pollution.
The federal science agency also funds a variety of education programs at CU-Boulder, including $2.5 million since 2000 to increase the number of U.S. students pursuing doctoral degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program emphasizes support for underrepresented students, including African Americans, Hispanics and American Indians.
Since 2000, the campus has received almost $2 million from NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates program, supporting more than 300 students, Pampel said. In addition, CU-Boulder has received nearly $7 million from NSF's Integrated Graduate Education and Research Trainees Program to support graduate students.
Others attending the NSB meeting at CU-Boulder Feb. 10 include NSB member and National Renewable Energy Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, Nobel laureate and former Fermilab Director Leon Lederman, CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano, Boulder Deputy Mayor Suzie Agetin and several Colorado state legislators.
A public comment period at the NSB meeting, scheduled for 4:40 p.m., will include brief remarks by Distinguished Professor and Nobel laureate Carl Wieman of CU-Boulder's physics department and JILA.
CU's Web cast of the NSB hearing begins at 12:30 p.m. To register, click on:
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The commission meeting is part of a weeklong visit to Boulder by NSB that also includes a hurricane workshop and laboratory tours at NCAR.