ON LIFE SUPPORT: FUTURE OF SCIENCE FOCUS OF LECTURE AT UH
Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series Presents Former Presidential
Adviser Neal Lane
HOUSTON, Nov. 9, 2006 – Former presidential adviser for
science and technology policy, Neal Lane, is coming to the University
of Houston to address the uncertain future of science in the United
States.
As part of the annual UH Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series,
Lane, who also is the former director of the National Science Foundation,
will speak in the main auditorium of the UH Science and Engineering
Research and Classroom Complex at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28. The
lecture is free and open to the public.
In his talk, “U.S. Science – Glorious Past, Uncertain
Future,” Lane will address three issues that will directly
affect science: money, people and public understanding. He also
will touch on three areas that he believes U.S. science and technology
policy is in disarray: health and medical research; energy and environment;
and space science and exploration. The lecture will conclude with
thoughts about what might be done to address these concerns.
“The United States has enjoyed six decades of extraordinary
scientific advancement made possible, in part, by enlightened policies
to support basic research and encourage the use of new scientific
knowledge and technologies to benefit the American people,”
Lane said. “But America – indeed the world – is
in a very different state than it was at the end of World War II.
The future of U.S. science is uncertain, and many of its vital signs
are not good.”
Widely regarded as a distinguished scientist and educator, Lane
has written and presented extensively on topics that include theoretical,
atomic and molecular physics and science and technology policy.
He is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University.
He also holds appointments as a senior fellow of the James A. Baker
III Institute for Public Policy, where he is engaged in science
and technology policy, and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Lane served in the federal government from 1998 to 2001 as assistant
to the president for science and technology and as director of the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. From 1993 to
1998, he was director of the National Science Foundation and an
ex officio member of the National Science Board. Lane received his
doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees, all in physics,
from the University of Oklahoma.
Inaugurated in 1986 and administered by the UH Center for Public
History, the Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible
by grants from Tenneco Inc. and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This year, the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and
physics department are co-sponsoring the event.
WHO: |
Former Director of White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy Neal Lane |
WHAT: |
Tenneco Distinguished Lecture
“U.S. Science – Glorious Past, Uncertain Future”
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WHEN: |
5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28 |
WHERE: |
University of Houston
Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex, main
auditorium
Entrance 14 off Cullen Boulevard/Reserved parking across street
in Lot 15 D (ungated) |
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at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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