Restructuring U.S. Science Policy
With the current administration nearing its term limit, U.S. science policy may soon be relieved of a number of ideological and religious constraints. Restructuring U.S. science policy will look at three key areas likely to benefit under either a McCain or Democratic administration: science education, biotechnology and climate change. Attention will be paid to recent and pending legislative changes in all three areas, and potential grassroots and Netroots responses. Each speakers is tasked to provide a picture of how U.S. science policy might appear a few years from now, assisted by ideas from an interactive audience.
Andrew co-founded the NASA CoLab program to increase efficiency and transparency at NASA through building open online NASA communities. He is an online strategy consultant for the Craigslist Foundation. Andrew has co-founded several social ventures, including GoodStorm (now Zazzle) and CivicSpace Labs. In 2003, Andrew founded the largest local group in the DraftClark movement and then managed the campaign's voter data and open-source software volunteer program. He co-created the YearlyKos "virtual convention" in Second Life in 2007. A planetary geologist and environmental scientist by training, Andrew graduated from the NASA Academy, the International Space University, Brown University and Berkeley.
Ed Brayton is the voice behind the popular blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars (http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches). He is also a fellow with the Center for Independent Media's New Journalist program and the co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science.
Constance is also the co-founder and CEO of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company. She is a co-founder and Board member of BioE2E, Inc., www.bioe2e.org a nonprofit supporting bioentrepreneurship. She holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and an AB from Stanford University. She thanks everyone who fought to take our country back.
Writer, climber, and photographer Mark Bowen has written two books on the science and politics of climate change: "Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains" (Henry Holt, 2005) and "Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming" (Dutton, 2007). A physicist with a doctorate from MIT, he lives in the Boston area.
Stephen DarkSyde grew up in the Southwest and has long been fascinated by science, particularly evolutionary biology, physics, and astronomy. As the scope of incompetence and malfeasance in the Bush Administration and the wider Neoconservative Republican Party became evident throughout 2003, Stephen began reading and writing on blogs. In short order, he rejected the existing incarnation of the GOP and joined forces with progressive bloggers. He still considers himself a political neophyte, and tends to write mostly about science and science policy, with only occasional forays into political commentary.
