NSF director Rita Colwell outlines her agenda
Archived article from Nov 6, 1998
By Douglas Frank
In her first visit to Rutgers as director of the National Science Foundation, Rita Colwell met with faculty members and administrators and outlined the agency's agenda.
The National Science Foundation must "respond to and cultivate the most promising opportunities and directions in research and education," Colwell said during her Nov. 2 talk.
"From what I've seen already on campus, I know that Rutgers gives us an outstanding window on all of these trends and opportunities," she added.
Prior to her talk, Colwell met with Rutgers administrators and faculty who are conducting NSF-sponsored research in discrete mathematics, undergraduate and K-12 education, and environmental research and the life sciences.
During her one-day visit, she also met with President Francis L. Lawrence, University Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph J. Seneca, Research Vice President James Flanagan, and Institutional Research and Planning Vice President Christine Haska.
"This was truly a great opportunity for Dr. Colwell to visit Rutgers very early in her tenure," Lawrence said. "She learned about the impact of our strategic-planning process and about the noteworthy accomplishments of our faculty."
Commenting on Colwell's remarks about Rutgers' recent work in Washington on behalf of federal research funding, Seneca said: "She expressed her deep gratitude to President Lawrence for his leadership and to our faculty members for their effective work advocating the increases in federal research dollars that represent such an important resource for research universities in accomplishing their research missions."
Flanagan added: "Dr. Colwell clearly knows of our strong record of achievement and our future aspirations in such areas as information science, and she understands and supports the development of projects like RUNet 2000 to support those directions."
In her talk, Colwell mentioned several NSF-funded research projects, including the recent award totaling $2 million to two groups on campus in the first year of NSF's Plant Genome Research Program.
Professor Hugo Dooner of the Waksman Institute has received a three-year $1.3 million grant to study corn functional genetics and Eric Lam, associate professor of plant science at the Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment (Biotech Center), has received a two-year $676,000 grant for work on chromatin charting.
"As we address increasing world food needs, many of the solutions will come from advances in plant biology and crop improvement," Colwell said. "This work will also give us a window on key future trends in science and engineering."
Genomics, she said, involves more than just great science. "It also advances the state of the art in information technologies. It requires reaching across disciplines. And a basic understanding of genetics is also integral to being a scientifically literate citizen."
These issues, she said, speak to three priorities: science and math education; biocomplexity; and information technology.
"I feel strongly that every schoolchild must be educated for a productive and contributory place in an advanced information age," she said. "Y2K is a tough nut to crack. But K through 12 is the real challenge."
Colwell noted that telling some students that they can't master science and math "becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, damning to the student and destructive to the country. We must believe in all children so that they learn to believe in themselves."
Colwell noted that "biocomplexity" is now "alien to your lexicon" but is a concept that will become familiar over the next few years.
Biocomplexity, according to Colwell, is a deeper concept than biodiversity. "It is not enough to explore and chronicle the enormous diversity of the world's ecosystems," she said, adding that we must also "reach beyond, to discover the complex chemical, biological and social interactions that comprise our planet's systems." Then we can "tease out the fundamental principles of sustainability."
"Our survival as a human species and the ecological survival of the entire planet depend on our ability to achieve what is a truly interdisciplinary task," she said.
These scientific findings must then be communicated from the life scientists to the larger scientific community and to the public.
"The vast capabilities that information technologies open up to science, technology and engineering become the central tool for a new communication that is imperative between the public and those communities," she said.
The virtual explosion in diverse information systems represents a new "Age of Exploration," Colwell said, that can create new disciplines and fields of knowledge, and trigger new industries.
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