The Future of Science and Technology Policy

The C-PET Forum on Science, Technology and the Presidential Election at the National Press Club

Chair: Nigel Cameron, President, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies; Illinois Institute of Technology

Co-chairs: Jennie Hunter-Cevera, President, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
Jonathan Moreno, University of Pennsylvania

Co-sponsored by the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and the Society for Industrial Microbiology

Election Forum Audio

1. Michael Nelson, representing Senator Obama
2. Nelson (cont.); Panel on the Future of Federal Role in Science and Technology Policy
3. Federal Role (cont.); Panel on Space Policy
4. Space Policy (cont.)
5. Panel on Emerging Technologies
6. Emerging Technologies (cont.)

National leaders on science and technology policy met Friday September 26 in Washington, DC to discuss what many see as the leading issue facing America in the long term.

Science and technology drive the economy and are the keys to our security. Every facet of the future will be shaped by the options they offer. The Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies, lead sponsor of the forum, has been established with wide bipartisan support and participation from corporate, policy and civil society sectors - to raise the profile of S and T policy and especially the long-term transformational significance of "emerging technologies" such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, and applications such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

The forum opened with a keynote from Senator Obama's lead technology surrogate, Michael Nelson, former White House staffer, IBM executive, and now Visiting Professor at Georgetown, who laid out Obama's vision for the future of science and technology policy. Senator McCain's surrogate, longtime Senate staffer and adviser Floyd DesChamps, withdrew from the forum as the McCain campaign had been briefly suspended in response to the financial crisis.

The opening panel addressed the Federal Role in S and T Policy. Led by David Goldston (former staff director of the House Science Committee and monthly columnist in Nature) it included Phillip Bond (President of the Information Technology Association of American, former Undersecretary at the Department of Commerce), Reece Rushing (Center for American Progress), and Neil Munro (National Journal).

The second panel addressed Space Policy. Moderated by Paul Root Wolpe of Emory University, it included NASA's Planetary Protection Officer Cassie Conley and former Chief Medical Officer (now at George Mason University) Arnauld Nicogossian.

The final panel focused on Emerging Technologies. Moderated by Una Ryan, former CEO of AVANTI Immunotherapeutics, it included Jennifer Camacho (IP lawyer and partner at Proskauer Rose in Boston), Dawn A. Bonnell (Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center at the University of Pennsylvania), forum co-chair Jennie Hunter-Cevera (President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute), and Caroline Wagner of the Center for International Science and Technology Policy at George Washington University.

Linked below are materials provided by panelists at the Election Forum. Both campaigns were invited to provide a presenter and materials.

Meeting summary
Science Debate 2008 questions and answers from the candidates
Reece Rushing PP presentation: Governing by the Numbers
Paul Wolpe PP presentation: Space Bioethics
Obama endorsement letter from Nobel laureates
Obama fact sheet on science and innovation
McCain statement on space policy
McCain statement on technology policy