Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

President Obama Meets the Nation's Cutting-Edge Researchers

President Barack Obama greets the 2010 PECASE recipients in the East Room of the White House, Oct. 14, 2011. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

For over half a century, solar astronomers around the world have been baffled by two questions: Why is the sun’s outer atmosphere hotter than the surface of the sun itself, and what causes solar winds?  In 2018, NASA will launch its first mission to the sun, using cutting-edge technology designed to shed light on these mysteries at last.

Riding with one of the groundbreaking instruments for that mission will be the hopes and dreams of Justin Kasper, a young astrophysicist who helped develop the mission’s solar wind analyzer and who on Friday proved himself a stellar scientist in a second sense of the word by being one of 94 scientists and engineers to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

PECASE awards are bestowed each year upon outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership, and have demonstrated a commitment to community service and the advancement of science, technology, engineering and math education. 

This year’s PECASE recipients represent extraordinary examples of American creativity across a diverse span of disciplines while demonstrating the immense potential of ongoing Federal investments in health care, manufacturing, global development, and other fields. 

Take for example Pierre Comizzoli of the Smithsonian Institution, who has been investigating innovative processes relating to fertility—including methods for isolating and drying the DNA of egg cells, which is a less expensive and easier alternative to freezing and preserving the entire egg.  His work, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), could someday be used not only to extend human fertility but also to save endangered species.

Or consider PECASE winner Nicola J. Camp, a professor at the University of Utah, who is focused on two forms of blood cancer—chronic lymphocytic leukemia and multiple myeloma—as well as breast cancer.  Her research, also supported by NIH, looks at how genetic changes within generations of families may lead to an increased risk of cancer.

PECASE winner David J. Brumley, an assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, works with the Department of Defense to identify computer systems security flaws and to anticipate cyber security problems before they occur.

And Rommie Amaro, of the University of California at Irvine, has developed new computational methods that, when applied to studies of cell-surface proteins, is expected to speed development of pharmaceuticals for influenza, chlamydia, and other diseases that today take their tolls on the planet's most underprivileged people.

After receiving their awards in a ceremony with agency officials, friends, and relatives—a ceremony keynoted by OSTP Director John Holdren—the ambitious researchers were greeted by President Obama in the White House. With this much progress at this early stage of their careers, we can expect even greater things from these leading lights in the years to come.

Embracing Diversity as Hispanic Heritage Month Ends

Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres.

There are a few ways to interpret this Spanish proverb, which I learned from my mother, who was counseling me to choose my school friends carefully. To some, the phrase cautions “you are judged by the company you keep,” so keep company with those who reflect well on you.

I hear it in a more literal way. “Tell me whom you walk with, and I will tell you who you are.”  In other words, the people we spend time with contribute to our character and what we want out of life. With this in mind, it’s not at all surprising that I, the daughter of an electrical engineer and an elementary school teacher of a bilingual classroom, am spending this year working on broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and math education at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  

Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States began on September 15 and runs through today.  The middle of a month is a strange day to begin a celebration, but less so if you know that beginning that week, eight Latin American countries celebrate their independence, including Costa Rica, where my mother was born, and Mexico, where my father’s parents grew up.  My parents were the first members of their respective families to graduate from college, and the value they placed on education has led me thus far to a lifetime in schools of all kinds.

Going to school has exposed me to different communities and regions of the country, and learning about my classmates is how I understand what it means to be American.  The high school I attended in Cerritos, California, was rated No. 3 in the country by US News & World Report.  In 1988, the year Congress created Hispanic Heritage Month, a study found Cerritos “the most ethnically diverse place in America." Through tutoring and studying with peers, I got to know families whose lives were rich with details that were foreign to me (and mine to them), even as our parents wanted the same success for all of us.

College, teaching, and graduate school, took me to the flat farmland of Ohio, mountainous Virginia, and hot, hilly Central Texas. Though I come from an ethnically diverse town, I never would have had the guts to leave home if I hadn’t been excited about the schools, and more specifically, the science. I didn’t see many people who looked like me in my PhD program in chemistry, but science labs are diverse in other ways, especially including international students on visas who share a desire to work and learn.

Upon visiting America, de Tocqueville remarked that “born often under another sky… himself driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about him, the American … grows accustomed only to change… He feels the need of it, more he loves it; for the instability; instead of meaning disaster to him, seems to give birth only to miracles all about him.” Being well prepared by my parents and my teachers allowed me to choose science from among many possible careers; a good education allows us to be flexible and less fearful about the unknown and excited about what we might discover.

Chelsea Martinez is a Congressional Hispanic Caucus STEM Fellow at OSTP