mp3 download The United States is blessed with an extraordinarily successful system for the generation and application of innovation, as evidenced by its world leadership over the past half century or more in developing and putting to use new technologies for commercial, civilian, and national security purposes. Firms in the United States have mastered wave after wave of new technologies, from aerospace and electronics to pharmaceuticals and nanotechnology. These fields of endeavor have been built on strong foundations of new knowledge and understanding of the physical, mathematical, and biological sciences and of engineering. They have benefited from the establishment over time of a highly supportive national innovation system (NIS). The combination of mastery of the scientific and engineering foundations and the smooth functioning of its NIS has enabled the United States to move effectively in little more than a century from an agricultural, to an industrial, to a postindustrial society.
As the 21st century has unfolded, however, radical new challenges and opportunities suggest that the United States is on the threshold of a new era in the development of advanced societies. I call this new era the "post-scientific society."
With legislation such as the America COMPETES Act, US policy makers aim to strengthen educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from elementary through graduate school. This and other policy measures will help to generate the next generation of the well-educated STE workforce needed to ensure the future leadership of the United States in developing and implementing new technologies.
However, this also brings to mind an unfortunate past mistake: For many years a vast pool of excellent human resources for these fields wasn't given enough attention by many policy makers, academia, and R&D institutions - the overlooked potential was women and minorities in science and technology.
Science and Engineering Indicators 2006, a report issued annually by the National Science Foundation, shows that although the number of women and minorities enrolling in graduate schools and receiving science and engineering degrees (bachelor's or higher) increased, with women outnumbering men in S&T bachelor's degrees in 2001 (see fig. 1 / http://nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c0/fig00-36.htm), the representation of women, Blacks, and Hispanics in science and engineering (S&E) occupations is still less than their proportion of the population.
This disproportion also carries into academia. Underrepresented minorities (Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives) are a small percentage of the S&E doctorate holders employed in academia, making up 8 percent of both total academic employment and full-time faculty in 2003 (insert fig. 2 / http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/c5/tt05-07.htm). Although there has been an increase in the number of women and underrepresented minority degree holders employed in S&E, they are mostly concentrated in the social sciences rather than physical sciences. Why? Arguments by policy makers, faculty, and secondary teachers have attributed these numbers to the public image of STEM, but the most important factor may be the lack of awareness about STEM possibilities prior to post-secondary education.
Dr. Shirley Malcom
Dr. Shirley Malcom, the head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), engages with these issues. The Education and Human Resources Programs Directorate includes AAAS programs in education and activities for women and minority groups, as well as public understanding of science and technology. Malcom received her doctorate in ecology from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree in zoology from the University of Washington. It is her experience and advocacy for science and education that led to her 2003 receipt of the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the highest award given by the Academy. Malcom talked with bridges about women and minorities in STEM and her insight into the reasons that underlie the disparity.
Currently, women represent 56 percent of graduates in higher education in Europe. Unfortunately, this number does not translate into professional life: In research, the higher you climb on the job ladder, the fewer women you will encounter - somewhat unexpected from a logical point of view, but a matter of fact for industrial as well as academic careers.
According to She Figures 2006, published by the European Commission, women constitute only 29 percent of researchers across the EU as a whole. Even worse is the situation in higher education: only 15 percent of those at the highest academic grade (Grade A position, equivalent to full professors in most countries) are women. The gender imbalance at the senior grade is even greater in engineering and technology, where the proportion of women is just 5.8 percent.
Kick-Off of the George C. Marshall Austrian-US Visitors Program
First US Environmental Technology Experts’ Visit to Austria bridges vol. 16, December 2007 / Feature Article
The delegation poses in their hardhats at the Spittelau Waste Incineration Plant in Wien.
From October 7th to 14th of this year, the George C. Marshall Austrian-US Visitors Program was held for the first time in Austria. The establishment of such a program was originally announced during a meeting between then-Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and US President George W. Bush at the Vienna EU-US Summit in June 2006.
Each year from now on, a delegation from the US Senate, the House of Representatives, and various federal and state-level agencies and universities will be invited to visit Austria. They will participate in a weeklong series of presentations, briefings, and meetings that highlight Austrian innovations in industry and technology, while improving mutual understanding through communications on both a personal and a professional level.
The Marshall Visit 2007 focused on "Environmental Technology," an area in which Austria is among the leaders worldwide and
The delegation at the Biodiesel Refinery at Lobau Harbor.
is able to provide best practice models, expertise, and innovative know-how. The comprehensive weeklong visitors' program was prepared and coordinated by the Ministry for European and International Affairs in cooperation with the responsible federal ministries, the Austrian Parliament, the City of Vienna, the regional government of Lower Austria, and the Austrian Economic Chamber. The heavy schedule included not only numerous meetings with experts on sustainability and environmental technologies, but also visits to facilities such as Biodiesel Vienna in Lobau, to Europe's largest passive house office building in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, and to the waste incinerator of the Fernwärme Wien in Spittelau.
Apart from offering Austrian and American experts and entrepreneurs a unique personal platform for exchanging information and best practice models in the area of environmental technologies, the visit also helped to build useful contacts and develop networks within the professional community. Currently, two concrete projects are being pursued: a "Memorandum of Understanding" regarding Environmental Technologies between Austria and the government of California, and a potential participation of the City of Vienna in a conference on the topic of restoration of river beds planned for spring 2008 in Washington, DC.
The following Q&A is based on an interview in which Austrian Information spoke with Dale Medearis, senior environmental planner with the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and a participant in this year's visit.
Austrian companies occupy a leading role worldwide in the fields of environmental technology and green building. The current increase in the demand for environmentally friendly products in the US is creating great opportunities for innovative Austrian products and technologies.
Artistic reconstruction of the Great Library of Alexandria by O. Von Corven.
Once upon a time in the 3rd century BC, Demetrius Phalerus, a student of Aristotle, suggested to the then ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy I, the creation of a universal library associated with the Mouseion (Temple of the Muses), a great learning center in Alexandria, Egypt. With this suggestion, the Royal Library of Alexandria, Egypt, was born. The library was famed as the largest library in the ancient world and presumably contained about 700,000 manuscripts, with every original text hand-copied by a scribe and indexed. Today, in the 21st century, The Million Book Project has taken the vision of Demetrius and put it online.
The Million Book Project, an international venture led by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India, and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt, has completed the digitalization of more than 1.5 million books, now available online. Although Google, Microsoft, and the Internet Archive have all launched major book digitalization projects, the Million Book Project represents the world's largest, university-based, digital library of freely accessible books.
