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150 Years of Advancing Science: A History of AAAS
Change and Continuity: 1971 to the Present
AAAS takes part in the policy arena by facilitating communication
between the science and engineering community and policy makers. In 1973,
the Association, in collaboration with several of its affiliates, established
a program to place Ph.D. scientists and engineers on congressional staffs
in year-long fellowships. Since that time, the program (later joined
by a number of other programs oriented to executive branch agencies of
government), has brought more than 1,100 Congressional Fellows to Washington,
many of whom have remained and pursued policy careers.
In 1976, AAAS brought in former Bureau of the Budget official Willis
Shapley to prepare a small book on the federal budget for research and
development. Shapley's analysis served as the basis for the first
AAAS Colloquium on R&D in June 1976. The reports and meetings
of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program which grew out of this initiative
have become increasingly influential in recent years.
Roger Boisjoly, a 1988 co-winner
along with Richard Garwin, receiving the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility
Award from AAAS President Walter Massey. Boisjoly, an engineer, repeatedly
warned of design problems with the Challenger space shuttle and had recommended
against launching. The Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off
in January 1986, killing the crew. |
John Edsall's 1975 report, Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, set
the tone for an array of activities sponsored by the Committee on Scientific
Freedom and Responsibility and aimed at protecting scientific freedom and
enhancing the ethical climate in science. The Committee's Scientific Freedom
and Responsibility Award, awarded annually since 1981, has recognized the
courage of scientists and engineers, some of whom have risked their careers
or even lives for their ethical stands.
As energy policy became a national preoccupation in the mid-1970s, AAAS
entered the fray, co-sponsoring, with the Carnegie Institution of Washington
and the MITRE Corporation, a conference evaluating President Carter's National
Energy Plan. Held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in May 1977,
the conference featured talks by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Henry
M. Jackson (D-Wash.) and seven other Senators and Representatives, as well
as a number of leading scientists, engineers, and policymakers.
The National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS), a joint committee
of AAAS and American Bar Association, was established in 1974 to facilitate
communication between the two professions and to explore emerging issues
at the intersection of science and law. NCLS's 1993 amicus curiae
brief in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a landmark case
on the use of scientific evidence in the courts, was cited in the Supreme
Court decision.
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