Climate Services Clearinghouse, CIRES' Center for Science and Technology Policy |
Accomplishments
The Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Policy was awarded to its first two recipients. One of those recipients, Shep Ryen, accepted a job offer with the staff of the House Science Committee. Our first Ph.D recipient, Erik Fisher, successfully defended his dissertation and has accepted a post-doc position at Arizona State University's Center for Nanotechnology in Society.
Dr. Frank Press's April 11 visit completed our very popular lecture series "Policy, Politics, and Science in the White House: Conversations with Presidential Science Advisors." In the past FY we brought to the CU-Boulder campus the following five former presidential science advisors for two-day visits and talks with students, faculty, scientists and the general public: Dr. Edward David (Nixon advisor), Dr. Neal Lane (Clinton advisor), Dr. Donald Hornig (Johnson advisor; pictured at left), Dr. George Keyworth (Reagan advisor), and Dr. Press (Carter advisor). These are in addition to last year's visits of Dr. John Marburger (Bush advisor) and Dr. John Gibbons (Clinton advisor). The Center is editing a book based on the science advisors' talks in Boulder.
In the second year of our five-year NSF-sponsored project, Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC), we organized workshops in Honolulu, Hawaii to examine RISA science policy, and in Munich, Germany to analyze the connection between climate change and disaster losses. SPARC researchers also made 16 presentations and wrote 14 articles in connection with the project.
The Center entered into a collaboration this year with Arizona State University on a new National Science Foundation (NSF) project exploring the societal implications of nanotechnology. NSF awarded ASU a 5-year, $6.2 million grant under its Nanoscale Science and Engineering Program to create a Center for Nanotechnology in Society. The Policy Center will contribute to this project by organizing a National Consensus Conference panel in Colorado to identify values intended to guide policymakers and then develop specific policy recommendations for the future development of nanotechnology. It will also help conduct exploratory research aimed at assessing the implementation of federal policies on the societal dimensions of nanotechnology at local university lab settings.
Center graduate student Joel Gratz completed his study for the National Weather Service titled "Lessons in Technology Transfer Policy for the Atmospheric Sciences: A case study in Public-Private-Academic Partnership on Level II Radar Data," focusing on the NWS's national network of 158 NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radars. The study explores the development and outcomes of the current Level-II radar data dissemination system and makes recommendations for weather community leaders.
Center researcher Myanna Lahsen completed her NSF project titled "Our Science, Their Science" which studied the interplay of science, culture, power and politics in international affairs through a focus on Brazil's Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere (LBA) experiment. Lahsen made four presentations and has eight publications either finalized or in preparation based on her study.
Center visiting fellow Lisa Dilling has an edited volume forthcoming from Cambridge University Press (with NCAR's Susi Moser) titled Creating a Climate For Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change [anticipated publication December 2006].
Roger Pielke, Jr. has a new book, titled The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press [anticipated publication in early 2007]. In the book Pielke argues that scientists have choices about how they decide to engage with policy and politics. The book provides some guidance as to how such choices might be made, and their consequences for individual scientists and the broader community.
Climate Services Clearinghouse, a one-stop shopping website that draws together climate services and products across sectors, from NOAA, non-NOAA government agencies, academia, and the private sector, was completed in January 2006 and is in the process of being transitioned to NOAA Climate Services.
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Impacts
Center staff produced 31 peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications in the past fiscal year, and gave 64 presentations at academic conferences and other events (52 by staff, 12 by graduate students). Other Center products include a quarterly newsletter, a national outreach briefing, an extensive Web site, and a well-regarded science policy weblog that receives more than 2,300 visitors a day, was recently named one of the 50 most popular science blogs by Nature magazine, and was described as an "excellent, informative site" by Science magazine. The Center also hosted 18 talks by affiliates and visitors.
Products
The Center continues to be viewed as a serious source of analysis and information by science and technology policy decision makers. Center Director Roger Pielke, Jr., was invited to testify at the House Committee on Government Reform's hearing "Climate Change: Understanding the Degree of the Problem." Center staff were quoted or referred to 91 times over the past year by media including the Associated Press, New York Times, Nature, LA Times, Fox News, China Daily, Wall Street Journal, and numerous local and regional publications.
Our graduate students continue to make inroads into decision-making circles as well. During the summer of 2006 a Center graduate student interned for the second year with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and, as mentioned previously, a Center graduate is now on the staff of the House Science Committee.
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