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Preface Over the last half century, many societal advances have been driven by progress in science and technology. Devastating diseases have been conquered, our quality of life and national security have been enhanced, and new economic and intellectual frontiers have been opened. Yet the public generally sees this progress as good fortune, not recognizing that it is largely the result of a sustained commitment by the nation to support science through policies enacted immediately after World War II and in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. This book is an attempt to increase awareness of the importance of science and “policy for science” among scientists, policymakers , and the public, in the hope that the lessons from the past half-century can help guide choices for the future. In 1999, I began a national science policy course at the University of Michigan that attracted undergraduate and graduate students from physics, engineering, medicine, education , and other disciplines. In searching for a suitable text for the course I was very surprised to find that none existed. I proceeded by drawing upon articles on science policy and other resources such as the National Science Foundation’s Science and Engineering Indicators, and the AAAS “Science Policy Yearbook” and its “Annual Report on the Federal Budget.” In the spring of 2002, I had lunch with Tobin Smith, who was the University of Michigan’s director of federal relations for research. In that capacity Toby had been making presentations on the importance of working with Congress, offering them to science and engineering faculty and students in both Ann Arbor and Washington, DC. We lamented the absence of a book that outlined the basic elements of national science policy. Given the growing interest within academic circles and the increasing number of university courses being offered to examine how public policy can support, regulate, and guide the conduct of scientific research, we were both surprised by our shared conclusion that no such book existed. The day after our lunch, I invited Toby to join me in writing it. To test what we believed to be true, we conducted a review of existing books on science policy. We found none that provided a comprehensive account of science policy and related issues. Indeed, we were hard pressed to find one that contained a basic definition of science policy. While some books addressed aspects of the topic, we found that the existing literature (1) focused narrowly on specific issues; (2) was oriented toward the politics of science and how science fits in a democracy; (3) provided a historical perspective on science policy and the relationship between the government and the scientific community ; or (4) addressed only how science and scientists influenced broader public policies, such as those relating to the environment or health care, not how policy influenced science itself. It was to fill this void that we wrote this book. Early in the process, knowing how busy our schedules were, we sought the help of Jennifer McCormick. Jen was a graduate student in public policy who had taken a keen interest in science policy and had been one of the outstanding students in my science policy class. In this text we focus on how policy is formulated to guide and influence the conduct of science. Our hope is to provide a basic text that can be used in an introductory undergraduate or graduate course on science policy. At the same time, the information we provide may be of value to a scientist, policymaker, or layperson who wants to learn about science policy and the context in which decisions about it are made. x | BEYOND SPUTNIK From their individual backgrounds the authors have brought eclectic perspectives on science policy. Toby is currently the associate vice president for federal relations for the Association of American Universities (AAU) and represents the research interests of the nation’s most prestigious collection of research universities, a post that requires daily interactions with science policymakers. He previously worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to former representative Bob Traxler (D-MI). Jen holds a doctorate in biology and a master’s degree in public policy, has studied national science policy extensively, and is a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. My own experience has come as a high-energy physicist involved in large-scale research projects, and as an administrator responsible for academic and research programs at several of our nation’s major research universities . I have served on the National Science...

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