Image credit – Biden Inaugural Committee
Although science policy often moves slowly, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic last year demonstrated how the landscape can be upended almost overnight. As 2021 gets underway, the pandemic recovery and the changeover in presidential administrations are promising to make for an eventful year, even apart from whatever new surprises may be in store.
President Biden’s team has pledged to ensure scientific expertise is applied across the government’s pandemic response and more broadly to “listen to the science” in all matters of governance. This broad focus on science may also add to the momentum building behind significantly expanding support for U.S. R&D. Dramatic shifts are certainly expected for areas such as climate research and immigration policy, though some areas of science policy may continue with little disruption.
Credit: The White House
As a new federal administration begins to take shape under President Joe Biden, a growing list of University of California-affiliated alumni and faculty have been nominated or appointed to positions in the new government.
California native Kamala Harris, a graduate of UC Hastings College of Law, is undoubtedly the most prominent of these new faces. With her swearing-in on Jan. 20, she becomes the first UC-affiliated person to ever hold the vice presidency. Dozens of UC-affiliated people, representing virtually all UC campuses, have been tapped to serve in the new administration.
Public service is one of the three core elements of UC’s mission, and these former UC faculty and alumni manifest this mission at its highest level.
Tim Fielder Details the Legacies of Radical Black Imaginaries
January 21, 2021
Every art form has an economy that surrounds and fuels its standing within the world’s cultural systems. The very survival of many industries is absolutely dependent upon the products generated by those forms as artisans of industry utilize their tools to design, manufacture, distribute, and market to willing consumers. Corporations have long employed the imaginations of futurists (those who forecast the trends in economics, business, government, and technology) to project trends and themes so that crucial investment decisions can be made to maximize profit. Imagine the shock and horror of the world’s oligarchs, who pay millions to professional futurists, when Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” made $1.3 billion at the box office. A desire was present, an intent formed, a product provided; gold was the result. No one saw it coming. Except those who practice Afrofuturism.
Science Takes Center Stage in the Biden Administration
The number of changes being implemented by the new administration in the White House are likely too many to count. And while many are significant, one strikes a chord with the scientific community in a very meaningful way. In the days leading up to his inauguration, President Biden made it clear that science is a priority. He has backed that up with several recent announcements.
First, President Biden named Eric Lander, PhD, the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, to the position of White House Science Advisor and will serve as the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In addition, President Biden is designating the Presidential Science Advisor as a member of the Cabinet for the first time in history.
Scientists are calling on new US President Joe Biden to revive the cancer moonshot programme, aimed at ending the disease that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year, and which took the life of his son, Beau.