I stumbled upon the The State of the Science Address from Marcia McNutt, the President of the National Academy of Science, through the always very interesting AIP FYI weekly newsletter.
Here’s a tl;dr version:- The US win 15% of the medals at the Olympics, but 60% of the Nobel – really efficient at attracting and retaining talents
- The US science workforce is increasingly International, but the US become less attractive (and visas are getting harder to get)
- China is rapidly increasing as a global force in science. Not only they publish a lot of science, but the quality of the output has increased
- International collaboration is important to avoid the possibility a single player flaunts the rules.
- researchers are underpaid (industry pays 70% better)
- The quality of STEM education in K-12 is not keeping pace with the world
- Philanthropy is a major funder of science (about 10%)
- Public support for science is important
Concluding slide from from Marcia McNutt’s State of the Science Address (full talk)
Five years ago, I had a chance to meet Dr. McNutt at Berkeley Lab. She was seeking input from postdocs on how the envisioned science.
An old picture from 2019 with the President of the National Academy of Science Marcia McNutt and the Berkeley Lab postdocs (my besties Sinead, Valentine, Fadji, Maria and I)
I told her that I really enjoyed being a scientist in federal lab (i.e. not a professor on campus), but I bluntly put that in my opinion academia (on campuses) is increasingly becoming a ponzi scheme – the PI recruits postdocs who take care of grad student who supervise intern. I guess she doesn’t disagree.
Opportunity slides from from Marcia McNutt’s State of the Science Address (full talk)