"Science and Technology in a Global Society:
Crossing Boundaries to New Frontiers"
Dr. Rita R. Colwell
Director
National Science Foundation
The International Forum on Science Funding System
Oriented to the 21st Century
Beijing, China
August 1, 2001
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[Title slide]
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President of the National Natural Science Foundation
of China, Vice Minister, Respected Guests, and friends
from around the world: I am honored to be here today
amongst distinguished scientists, engineers, and statesmen
from the People's Republic of China and from around
the globe.
I've had the privilege of visiting China on 6 previous
occasions and I am delighted to be back again. I greatly
appreciate the graciousness of my hosts.
And I'm genuinely delighted to join with the National
Natural Science Foundation of China in celebrating
its 15th Anniversary. This is a splendid
opportunity to recognize your many achievements in
advancing science and engineering research and education.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China and
the National Science Foundation in the United States
have a long and productive history of cooperation.
We have worked together over the years through many
exchanges and visits, and in a large number of joint
research projects.
[Proverb slide]
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I like the proverb: "Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress. Working together is
success."
This proverb captures the spirit of our ongoing partnership.
We first came together over 15 years ago. The result
has been success by any definition. We have learned
together, and from each other. I'm confident that
our partnership will only deepen and expand in the
years ahead.
All of us here today - from many nations and every
region of the globe - can appreciate that proverb.
We have all worked across national boundaries
to expand the frontiers of knowledge.
As scientists and engineers, we have much in common,
no matter what our nationality might be. We relish
our diverse national cultures, and we also share a
common culture of learning, inquiry, and discovery.
Much more unites us than divides us. As part of the
international community of science we share common
concerns that reach across national borders. As each
of us aims to strengthen our nation's capabilities
in research, we also aim to contribute to the cumulative
knowledge that lifts the prospects of people everywhere.
Meetings such as this are an important part of strengthening
our cooperative efforts. We in the U.S. know how we
benefit from gaining different perspectives and from
building closer ties with international colleagues.
Our common pursuit of new knowledge is a powerful
tool for bringing people together toward the common
goal of solving problems and building a world of peace
and prosperity.
[Knowledge is the
currency of everyday life]
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Advances in science and engineering are central to
the aspirations of all nations, large and small. In
the 21st century, new knowledge and the
technological innovation it fosters will drive economic
growth, and determine the quality of life and the
health of the planet.
Science and technology have always been a powerful
force for human progress. In the 21st century,
more than ever before in history, we have the opportunity
to advance global prosperity as we expand the frontiers
of knowledge and make possible ever greater achievements.
Our commitment to international collaboration will
determine how effective we are in realizing this great
potential.
I will talk with you today about the major challenges
of 21st century research and the progress
we can make toward meeting these challenges through
international scientific cooperation.
Let me start by sharing a recent - and very enjoyable
- experience.
Just two weeks ago I was delighted to be present at
the International Mathematical Olympiad when this
year's winners were announced. I should explain that
this is a very tough, international mathematics competition
for secondary school-age youngsters from around the
world. The U.S. hosted the competition this year,
and the National Science Foundation was a major sponsor.
Although each young mathematician competes as an individual,
there is always spirited competition among the teams
from each country.
[Chinese IMO Team]
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I congratulate our hosts. The team from China ranked
first overall! I met these splendid young mathematicians,
and we all are proud of them - and of every participant.
[US and Russian Teams]
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I also can say that the U.S. and Russian teams tied
for second place.
[Four winners with
perfect scores]
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Importantly, four participants got perfect scores -
two Chinese and two Americans.
This was a celebration on an international level of
the beauty of mathematics! It was an event that reminded
me that there is great hope for us in our children.
Nothing we can do in the international community of
science could be more important than providing world
class science and mathematics education for our youngsters,
and opportunities for our young scientists and engineers
to participate in international activities. They need
these opportunities to share perspectives and build
friendships to ensure even greater international cooperation
in the future.
[Three points slide]
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This brings me to three points I wish to make today.
First: scientific and engineering research is now a
truly global enterprise.
Second: science and engineering have changed in ways
that make international cooperation in research and
education essential for the advancement of knowledge.
And third: we must find new ways for scientists and
engineers around the world to work together.
Let me begin with my observation that science and engineering
research have become a global enterprise in today's
world.
[Science & engineering
research is a global enterprise.]
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Science and engineering are at the heart of the 21st
Century. New knowledge is a powerful driver of economic
prosperity and a force for human progress. That makes
new knowledge the most sought after prize in the world.
Nations around the world recognize the central role
of science and technology. Let me mention a few indicators.
- Investments in research and education have been
rising, because all nations understand the power
of science and technology in transforming their
economies and improving the lives of their citizens.
[Chart showing ratio
of 24-year-olds holding S&E degrees]
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- In country after country, the proportion of 24-year-olds
holding science and engineering degrees has been
increasing, sometimes significantly. An example
is China's more than three-fold increase between
1985 and 1999. That is an extraordinary accomplishment.
Yet despite progress in this area by many nations,
we all face the need to train more of our young
people in science and engineering than ever before.
[Chart showing research
collaboration by region]
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- In research, we see a rising share of the world's
scientific and technical publications with co-authors
from different countries.
- The investments in research we make in each other's
countries have also risen dramatically over the
last decade.
Interactions among nations now regularly include issues
depending directly on an understanding of science
and technology. A sign of how seriously this is taken
in the United States is the recent appointment of
the first Science Advisor to the Secretary of State.
That's a clear recognition of the pervasiveness of
science and engineering research and education and
the positive influence that international cooperation
in science, engineering, and technology has on world
peace and stability.
[Good ideas slide]
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Good ideas are found everywhere across the globe.
In theory, science has always been international. The
results of fundamental research - from the origins
of the universe to the fundamental properties of matter,
from the interaction of oceans and atmosphere to the
human genome - are open to all.
In practice, the spread of new knowledge and its applications
has often been glacially slow.
[Information and
communication tools are fostering a new science...]
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Today, that pace is quickening. The revolutionary new
information and communications technologies are turning
theory into reality. Science and engineering are now
a global enterprise.
In the last ten years, the technologies derived from
advances in science and engineering have swept across
the globe. We can collect, store, and manipulate vast
quantities of data. We can share those data and communicate
new knowledge essentially instantaneously. These capabilities
open new doors for international collaboration that
were unworkable only ten or fifteen years ago.
[Changes in science
and engineering...]
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These tools are also changing the very way we conduct
research and creating a new science of the 21st
century. When we dramatically advance the speed of
scientific research in any area, we give ourselves
the mechanism to reach a frontier much faster. Or,
better yet, to reach a new frontier that had been
unreachable, as well as unknowable.
[Folding protein
slide]
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Here is just one example. It takes just 20 milliseconds
for a nascent protein to fold into its functional
conformation. Until recently, it took 40 months of
computer time to simulate that folding. With new terascale
computer systems - operating at one trillion operations
per second - we have reduced that time to one day.
That's 1000 times faster. Just consider what that
means for tapping our knowledge of genomes!
Let's take the example one more step. Estimates of
the number of different proteins in the human body
have ranged from 10,000 to 50,000. Only about 1,000
of those have been studied. We now know from work
on the human genome about the process of protein turnover
- the constant synthesis and degradation of proteins.
That may push estimates up substantially.
Understanding the function of each protein in this
vast array will require many of the best minds in
the world - wherever they are. No single nation can
go it alone.
Speed is only one dimension of the new tools. The capacity
to catalog enormous quantities of data - terabytes,
in fact - is just the flip side of being able to manipulate
the data.
[Genomics slide]
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Both features have greatly enhanced work on the human
genome. It's not surprising that this work is the
result of international collaboration. The same is
true of work on the plant genome, which hold so much
promise to improve nutrition and health worldwide.
[Arabidopsis slide]
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Unraveling the genome of the model plant Arabidopsis
thaliana, announced just last fall, was the result
of a very successful international collaboration.
International teams are moving forward with work on
every major food crop plant.
But these powerful new tools are only one feature of
21st century science and engineering research.
Combined with major advances in mathematics and analysis,
they have opened up whole new territories for exploration.
[Complexity slide]
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One of these is the investigation and understanding
of complex phenomena. A striking picture is beginning
to emerge from the burgeoning quantities of data available
to us in many fields. It portrays systems with a huge
number of interdependent and interacting variables.
It highlights the importance of dynamic and non-linear
behavior, and emerging structures. We are only just
beginning to understand the nature of this complexity
and the challenges and opportunities it presents to
research.
A striking picture is beginning to emerge from the
burgeoning quantities of data available to us in many
fields. The portrait it provides is of systems with
a huge number of interdependent and interacting variables.
It highlights the importance of dynamic and non-linear
behavior, and emerging structures.
[Cholera slide]
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These features appear in systems as diverse as the
atmosphere and the basic functions of the brain, including
cognition. They also appear when we investigate dependencies
within and between different systems at different
levels of organization. I've seen this in my own work
on cholera, which spans systems from genes to microbes
to humans, and from ocean circulation to epidemics.
Let me give you an example. One of the emerging areas
that the National Science Foundation has identified
as a priority is "Biocomplexity in the Environment."
[Biocomplexity slide]
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The term "biocomplexity" refers to the dynamic web
of often surprising interrelationships that arise
when living things at all levels-from molecular structures
to genes to organisms to ecosystems--interact with
their environment.
Studies of environments and ecosystems have begun to
document phenomena characterized by abrupt changes,
thresholds, and non-linear dynamics. In mathematical
terms, this is behavior that is "complex." Earthquakes
and the extinction of some species are examples.
We have also become aware of the extent to which humans
interact with and alter the environment. Changes in
land use have resulted in dramatic changes in landscapes,
water resources, and biodiversity. We understand now
that changes in global climate cannot be understood
without taking into account the effect that humans
have on the environment - the way our individual and
institutional actions interact with the atmosphere,
the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems.
Scientists have begun to tackle the intricacies of
interactions among biological, ecological, physical
and earth systems, and are now confronting the challenges
of forecasting outcomes of those interactions.
[Global problems
require international solutions}
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These challenges are inherently global. We all have
a stake in the results of research in the areas of
climate change, emerging diseases, biodiversity, sustainable
energy, and earthquake and storm research, to name
just a few. International collaboration will not only
speed us along our path to knowledge. It will allow
us to begin unraveling the staggering complexity that
pervades these phenomena.
[Collage of different
disciplines]
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This points to another way that scientific and engineering
research is changing in the 21st century.
In many areas of research, scientific progress requires
the cross-fertilization of ideas, models, and experimental
platforms from many disciplines. Modern biotechnology
has developed with contributions from a broad range
of disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics,
engineering, and computer science. Nanoscale science
and engineering - one of the potentially revolutionary
technologies of the 21st century - calls
upon an equally diverse range of disciplines.
The increasing complexity, the need for multidisciplinary
approaches, and the global nature of much research,
require that we draw on different perspectives to
solve common problems.
[We need ideas from
a broad range of specialties, etc.]
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Science is becoming a science of communication and
collaboration - especially international collaboration.
We need ideas not only from a broad range of specialties,
but also from different geographic regions and from
all cultures.
In this same way, advances in science and engineering
knowledge are linked more intimately with innovation
than ever before. We now realize that scientific research
and technological innovation drive each other. In
the larger sense, innovation depends upon a mutual,
synergistic set of interactions that includes not
only science, engineering and technology, but social,
political and economic interactions as well. The pace
of both scientific progress and technological innovation
has increased synergistically.
These are profound changes in the conduct and the nature
of our scientific enterprise. International cooperation
is no longer a luxury. It is essential for advancing
science and engineering research in the 21st
century.
[We must find new
ways for scientists and engineers to work together]
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I come to my final point, which may be the most significant
for all of us here today. We must find new ways for
scientists and engineers around the world to work
together.
Of course, we shouldn't abandon our current forms of
cooperation that have served us so well. Opportunities
to meet face to face and to work together through
exchange programs are the basis for friendships that
enrich our collaborations and our lives. But we must
do more.
We need to reach beyond current models of cooperation
and make the most of the powerful new tools at hand.
One example is the virtual collaboratory.
Let me explain by describing a project the National
Science Foundation is funding in the U.S. The Network
for Earthquake Engineering Simulation - we call it
NEES - is a 21st century model of collaboration
- literally, a laboratory without walls or clocks.
[NEESgrid slide]
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Researchers at approximately 20 geographically distributed
equipment sites will be linked through high speed
Internet connections. They will be able to operate
equipment and observe experiments from anywhere on
the net. They will have access to a bank of earthquake
engineering data and to high performance computational
tools. Researchers on the net will be able to construct
physical or numerical simulations and visualizations
of experimental data.
Over time, NEES will grow, as other sites with unique
experimental capabilities join the network. NSF envisions
NEES as a virtual international collaboratory with
experimental and analytical resources distributed
around the globe.
We are only at the beginning of the great revolution
in information and communications technologies. We
know how to share information, but we are by no means
doing all we can to take advantage of the power of
computer and communications technologies to foster
international collaborative research. Distributed
data banks, shared computer and visualization facilities,
and other tools of the future will enable truly international
research. They will give the research community the
capability to call upon scientific and engineering
talent wherever it is located and whenever it is needed.
[Soon every part
of the globe will seem as close as our own back yard]
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As we develop new ways to work together, we will speed
the application of new knowledge to common problems.
In a similar vein, we can extend international cooperation
to countries large or small that are still struggling
to develop a strong science and engineering base.
Just around the corner is a world linked by wireless
communications and in constant contact through video
teleconferencing. The world of vast distances and
differences is shrinking, and soon every part of the
globe will seem as close as our own back yard.
We need to keep our eyes on that future and plan now
for the time when we are all next door neighbors.
That will define science and engineering in a 21st
century society.
Let me conclude with this final thought. We are fortunate
to be scientists, engineers, and educators at the
beginning of the 21st century. Whole new
territories of knowledge are on the horizon, with
the promise of major advances just ahead. We can begin
to envision how new knowledge and technological innovation
can help us solve some of the seemingly intractable
problems that confront us. The pursuit of scientific
enlightenment transcends political, cultural or language
barriers.
Each of us is fortunate to be working to advance our
nation's commitment to basic science and engineering
research and education. As we work across boundaries
to open new frontiers in science, we are also building
bridges between nations, and advancing global prosperity
and peace.
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