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Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • Director Holdren Keynotes U.S.-European Union Summit

    Posted by Rick Weiss on September 28, 2010 at 7:36 PM EDT

    Dr. Holdren Giving Keynote at U.S.--European Union Summit

    OSTP Director John P. Holdren delivered the keynote address at the U.S.--European Union Summit on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Economic Growth on September 28, 2010. (Photo courtesy David Hawxhurst/Wilson Center) September 28, 2010.

    OSTP Director John P. Holdren was the keynote presenter today at the U.S.-European Summit on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Economic Growth, held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

    Dr. Holdren described the Obama Administration’s strong commitment to supporting science and technology as a central approach to solving many of the biggest challenges today facing the Nation. Dr. Holdren also highlighted this Administration’s strong commitment to international collaboration with regard to science and technology, as evidenced by President Obama’s “New Beginnings” speech in Cairo last year; the convening of the Multilateral Economic Forum, with a strong focus on international energy-climate cooperation; and this spring’s meeting of the US-EU Joint Consultative Group on Science and Technology , which included discussions on bilateral cooperation in R&D on infotech, nanotech, energy, biomedicine, cyber infrastructure, homeland security, and Earth-observing systems, as well as how better to prioritize global challenges in food security, global health, sustainable energy, and climate change.

    Dr. Holdren's presentation is available here.

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  • The “Apps for Healthy Kids” Envelope, Please

    Posted by Aneesh Chopra on September 28, 2010 at 1:16 PM EDT

    Suspense is building in advance of tomorrow’s highly anticipated awards ceremony for the “Apps for Healthy Kids” challenge, where the winners of $60,000 in prizes will be announced for newly created digital games and apps that best empower and inspire kids to eat healthy and get moving.

    The Challenge—sponsored by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and launched in March by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity—attracted nearly 100 entries from students, software designers, game developers, and independent entrepreneurs living and working in states all across the country. The games and apps they developed incorporate USDA nutritional information into entertaining digital adventures designed to inspire kids and their parents to follow healthier lifestyles.

    Along the way, the challenge inspired the coordination of “game jams” in cities across the country, including George Mason University where I had the pleasure of kicking off the jam. Students and faculty joined in the spirit of collaboration to share ideas and test prototypes. The owners of Whyville.net built a platform of sorts where tweens and others could test-drive each other’s apps and games; and a huge community of supporters emerged to add enthusiasm and momentum to this healthful cause.

    If you have any doubt about how much this challenge has captured the Nation’s attention and imagination, just look at the lineup for tomorrow’s ceremony, to be held on the White House complex, which will feature Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs; USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; the Executive Director of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! campaign, Robin Schepper; former Redskins Super Bowl champion running back Brian Mitchell; and yours truly as emcee.

    So congratulations in advance to all those who stepped up to the Apps for Health Kids Challenge, and may the best App win! Then stay tuned for more: Many are already gearing up for the next challenge—the Recipes for Healthy Kids challenge.

    Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

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  • International Science Teachers Tour U.S. Cities, Schools, as Part of “New Beginning”

    Posted by Jason Rao on September 27, 2010 at 3:06 PM EDT

    Today I attended an inspiring event at which the State Department welcomed 25 science teachers visiting the United States from 25 countries around the world. The event marked the launch of an International Visitor Leadership Program entitled “A New Beginning: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education,” which will run from September 27 through October 15. The program aims to support a number of Administration priorities, particularly the renewed global science engagement called for by the President in his historic speech in Cairo last year and U.S. efforts to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

    The visiting teachers will visit primary- and secondary-level schools in seven cities across the United States, where they will engage in a professional, cultural, and educational examination of the building blocks of STEM education. During their visits to schools, participants will explore how to nurture and support hands-on science education, how to demonstrate the relevance of science for children, and how to create a setting in which children actively engage in scientific learning.

    Through a joint effort with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, program participants and local American students will also experience the connection between art and science. During the opening week of the program, American artist Kenji Williams will perform “Bella Gaia,” a multi-media, musical presentation that combines images of planet earth and space travel.

    By building new international relationships with rising leaders in the field of science and technology education, the State Department program promises to complement other New Beginnings efforts to reinvigorate international scientific collaboration and exchange. And it won’t end in October. After the teachers return home, their students and those of their American counterparts will be invited to take part in global “virtual” science fairs.

    The program begins in Washington, D.C., and will also be hosted in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

    I’ve participated in many International Visitor Leadership Programs (IVLP) over the years, and am always greatly impressed with the people and subject matter. The programs are coordinated by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and annually brings more than 4,500 potential or established leaders to the United States from around the world for professional projects with U.S. peers and for firsthand experience of American society and culture. Over 320 current and former chiefs of state and heads of government and many other distinguished world leaders in the public and private sectors have participated in the program, which this year celebrates its 70th anniversary.

    These programs add tremendous value across the board. In this example, the delegation will bring the perspective of nearly 25 countries to U.S. scientists and educators and foster new connections that will ultimately help all nations meet their STEM education goals.

    Jason Rao is a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science And Technology Policy

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  • National Ocean Council Gathers Steam

    Posted by Rick Weiss on September 24, 2010 at 7:54 PM EDT

    What singular set of global resources can provide jobs, food, energy, ecological services, recreation, and tourism while also playing a critical role in transportation, trade, and national security? The answer, as explained in an Executive Order signed by President Obama this summer, is the world’s oceans, our Nation’s coasts, and the Great Lakes. That Order created the National Ocean Council, whose Deputies met for the first time today in the latest move toward implementing—as ordered by the President—the recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force and developing coastal and marine spatial plans that will build upon and improve existing Federal, State, tribal, local, and regional planning processes. To learn more, check out the National Ocean Council site and today’s blog post by the Council’s co-chairs, OSTP Director John Holdren and Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley.

    Rick Weiss is Director of Strategic Communications and Senior Science and Technology Policy Analyst at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

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  • OSTP Full of Firsts

    Posted by Phil Larson on September 24, 2010 at 2:21 PM EDT

    Office of Science and Technology Policy staff gathered for a few minutes Tuesday morning to celebrate a significant event: For the first time in a decade, OSTP has the full complement of four Associate Directors authorized by Congress.

    Completion came this week with the swearing in of Nobel Prize winner Carl Wieman, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as OSTP’s Associate Director (AD) for Science. He joins Phil Coyle (AD for National Security and International Affairs), Shere Abbott (AD for Environment), and Aneesh Chopra (AD for Technology and the first ever U.S. Chief Technology Officer), under the leadership of OSTP Director John P. Holdren, who also serves as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

    Dr. Wieman is a physicist with a passion for science and engineering education—and an expert in the science of what works in the realm of education—who has headed up wildly successful science education initiatives at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of British Columbia. That makes him a great asset for OSTP since, as has been amply demonstrated by the President’s Educate to Innovate program and the recent announcement of Change the Equation, it is a top priority of this Administration to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Dr. Wieman also served as Chair of the Board on Science Education of the National Academy of Sciences.

    In addition to his accomplishments in STEM education, Dr. Wieman shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for creating, for the first time, Bose-Einstein condensate – an entirely new form of matter. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Education, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a fellow and former chairman of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    Phil Coyle has been OSTP’s Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs since July. Before joining the Administration, Mr. Coyle served as a Senior Advisor to the President of the World Security Institute and the Center for Defense Information, a Washington D.C.-based national security study center. In 2005 he was nominated by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the nine-member Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. From 1994 to 2001 he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Test and Evaluation.

    Shere Abbott was confirmed in April 2009 as OSTP’s Associate Director for Environment, the first person to fill that role since 2000. Ms. Abbott manages a portfolio of science and technology policy that ranges from energy and climate change to environmental quality and sustainability. Prior to her confirmation for this position by the Senate last year, she was on the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin and served as Director of the Center for Science and Practice of Sustainability in the Office of the University’s Executive Vice President and Provost.

    In May 2009 Aneesh Chopra was sworn in as OSTP’s Associate Director for Technology and as the Nation’s first Chief Technology Officer, in which role he also serves as an Assistant to the President. As such he plays key leadership roles in many tech-based Administration priorities including Open Government, the Nation’s innovation agenda, and expansion of broadband access. Prior to his OSTP appointment he served as the fourth Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, from January 2006 until April 2009.

    With all four Associate Directors now in place under the leadership of Dr. Holdren—and with a talented  staff of experts in science and technology policy—OSTP promises to be more effective than ever in supporting President Obama’s science and technology agenda.

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  • Dr. Holdren at Clinton Global Initiative

    Posted by Phil Larson on September 23, 2010 at 9:35 AM EDT

    Today at 10:30 a.m., OSTP Director John P. Holdren will participate in a session at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York. The panel, Clean Technology and Smart Energy: Deploying the Green Economy, will be live streamed below. You can also visit CGI's website for other channels and more information.

    Clean Technology and Smart Energy: Deploying the Green Economy

    Commitment Presenter:

    Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway

    Participants:

    Nadia K. Al Dossary, Chief Executive Officer and Partner, Al Sale Eastern Co. Ltd
    Gary Hattem, President, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, Deutsche Bank
    John Holdren, Science and Technology Advisor to President Barack Obama and Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
    Tri Mumpuni, Executive Director, IBEKA
    Conrad van Oostrom, Chief Executive Officer, OVG Real Estate

    Watch live streaming video from cgi_breakoutseminar1 at livestream.com

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