Guiding Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academies and their members have an overriding and unique mission of promoting and guiding the development of new ideas and of helping chart the course of the scientific, engineering, and health care enterprises. The Academies serve this mission in four distinct ways --

Identifying scientific opportunities and challenges that merit significant federal attention. For example, the landmark 1988 report Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome led immediately to a special U.S. program to support the complete mapping of the human genome. This project is now nearing completion and has vast potential for stimulating future medical advances. And every 10 years a major report is prepared that involves a large fraction of U.S. astronomers and astrophysicists. This “decadal survey” considers all of the major new facilities that would be useful for mapping the universe, whether satellites or Earth-based telescopes, and provides the potential funders of these facilities with a carefully rank-ordered list of funding priorities.

Convening current and emerging leaders of the science, engineering, and health care communities. Each year the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia series brings together the world’s leading scientists to identify important new fields of scientific endeavor -- and to address gaps between existing science disciplines created by new research and discovery. The annual Frontiers of Science and Frontiers of Engineering programs bring together industry’s and academe’s top young U.S. scientists and engineers -- represented, for example, by Packard and Sloan fellows and Waterman and MacArthur prize winners -- to discuss science and engineering across specialties. The program has been a catalyst for new interdisciplinary perspectives. It has proven so successful that a series of international Frontiers meetings now annually bring together Americans with young German, Chinese, and Japanese scientists and engineers.

Setting standards of professional conduct and ethics and defending the political and professional rights of individual scientists, engineers, and health care professionals. The National Academies helped federal agencies respond to the Government Performance and Results Act by presenting a clear set of guidelines for evaluating basic research. Wide acceptance of the guidelines has avoided the threatened use of short-term performance milestones, which are applicable only to more targeted research efforts. The National Academies have also been leaders in advocating free inquiry and the unrestricted exchange of ideas. Their direct defense of the human rights of unjustly imprisoned scientists, engineers, and health care professionals has brought the release of dozens of individuals in countries around the world.

Recognizing individual accomplishments of significant merit and impact through special awards and prizes, such as the Public Service Medal and the Draper and Russ Prizes. In all the Academies coordinate dozens of awards and prizes for work in science, engineering, and health care.

Increasingly, the strength of any individual nation and of the global community will be based not just on industrial capacity and natural resources but also on the strength of ideas and human creative potential. Our nation could better exploit its intellectual resources if science and engineering careers attracted more women and minorities. In engineering the numbers of these graduates are especially low, and they have been decreasing in recent years.

Some of society’s most profound challenges will come from the need to integrate advances in biology, biotechnology, and biomedicine. What are the social and legal implications of studying the genetic makeup of a fetus? Should a company “own” a commercially attractive gene it discovers? How do the complexities inherent in those issues multiply when we consider the growing power and reach of information technologies? Whether defending the teaching of evolution in our nation’s schools, fending off legislation that unwittingly harms scientists and engineers by privatizing their databases, or finding the right way to promote ethical scientific conduct, there will always be a need for the National Academies to use their own resources to respond forcefully to the unpredictable changes that threaten our enterprises.

The National Academies will guide the development of science, engineering, and medicine through --

Additional Frontiers of Science programs with developing countries and expanded Frontiers of Engineering programs in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. New Young Investigator programs will also be launched with China, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Mexico, and India, allowing small groups of postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty in the United States to expand their horizons while forming intellectual partnerships with young colleagues around the globe.
Efforts to bring more women and minorities into the engineering profession and the sciences, beginning with the expansion of existing Women in Science and Engineering programs.
Extending its international advocacy and emergency interventions on behalf of scientists, engineers, and health care professionals whose work is hampered or whose personal freedom is jeopardized by governments that do not fully recognize that science, engineering, and medicine can thrive only in an environment of open communication and free inquiry.
Enhancing the public’s understanding of science, engineering, and medicine -- and its appreciation for the important role that scientists, engineers, and health care professionals play in our social, cultural, and economic lives.

The National Academies need your assistance to implement their plans for meeting the Guiding challenge. You might consider --

Funding the participation of leading scientists or engineers in the Frontiers of Science and Engineering programs, enabling the Academies to foster dialogue among the world’s most promising young scientists and engineers ($15,000 annually).
Supporting emergency interventions and other essential activities of the Committee on Human Rights, which advocates across the globe for scientists, engineers, and medical professionals whose human rights are being violated ($25,000 annually).
Underwriting the Women in Science and Engineering Program or the Diversity in the Engineering Workforce Forum, web site, and educational activities ($100,000 annually).
Endowing special awards and recognition programs for scientists, engineers, and health care professionals who make unique or profound contributions to their fields (endowments range from $100,000 to $2.5 million).

As the defined needs change and our programs evolve, so too will your opportunities to help. To learn about more ways you can shape the future through the work of the National Academies, visit the Giving Opportunities page or contact us at giving@nationalacademies.org. We welcome your ideas, too.