Neal Lane, senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, is available to speak on the importance of science and technology policy and research to the economic and security aspirations of the United States.
“The evisceration of the National Science Foundation (NSF) — including wholesale firings, budget-slashing and arbitrary elimination of grants — is especially worrisome to those of us who understand the crucial role science has played in making America a great and powerful nation,” Lane and Michael Riordan wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Previously, Lane served in the federal government as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from August 1998 to January 2001, and he served as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and member (ex officio) of the National Science Board from October 1993 to August 1998. Before his post with NSF, Lane was provost and professor of physics at Rice, a position he had held since 1986.
“Consistent federal support for science over the past 75 years has underpinned the advances that, converted to practice by the private sector, have given the United States the world’s strongest economy, most productive farms, most effective biomedical technology, most robust environmental protection and most capable military,” wrote Lane and John P. Holdren in a recent op-ed for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “But Trump’s vicious attacks on science, which started on Inauguration Day, are putting these advantages at serious risk.”
To schedule an interview with Lane, contact Avery Ruxer Franklin, media relations specialist at Rice, at AveryRF@rice.edu.