Hour. Welcome, everyone. Thank you, thank you. Welcome to the American Association for the advancement of science or triplea s as we call it and welcome to our kickoff event for the historic march for science tomorrow. Im the chief operating officer here at trip willing will s. On is the professor of Environmental Science and policy in the department of earth and planetary snszs at harvard university. In 1995, john gave the acceptance speech for the noble peace frooiz prooiz on science and world affairs. And International Organization of scientists and public figures in which he served in various leadership positions. More recently, for the last eight years, john was president baen obamas science adviser and director of the White House Office of science and Technology Policy. Where he was my boss for a while. John is the longest serving president ial science adviser in the history of the position. His portfolio included all science and Technology Issues including economic competitiveness, public health, energy, and climate change, Stem Education, the space program, Homeland Security as well as coordination of research and Development Funding and advancing scientific integrity and openness and government. John is also a member of the National Academy of assistances, the National Academy of engineering and is a former president of the triplea s. Please join me in welcoming dr. John hold dren. [ applause ]. Thank you. Well thank you very much. Great pleasure to be back in this room where i gave a number of speeches in my official capacity. They were necessarily somewhat more restrained than todays remarks will be. And i want to stress therefore at the beginning that triplea s bears no responsibility for the content of my remarks nor do the other institutions named here. I am now a free personable able to speak my mind as you will see. All right. I start with something that wouldnt have to be, shouldnt have to be explained but one of the purposes of the science march tomorrow i think is to make sure that the wider public and to the extent possible policy makers understand why science and Technology Matter. And im not gol going to read thank you list, you can read it faster than i can speak it, but the essence sense of the matter is that science and Technology Matter to virtually every other issue on the national and global agenda. These challenges that we fis in all these domains cannot be understood, never mind sur mounted without very substantial inputs from science and technology. And, of course, it is also the case that science and technology are one of the characteristics that really makes us human, characterizes us as humans, the excitement of discovery, the excitement of invention, and the determination to improve the human condition by bringing insights from this domain to bear. The federal government has important roles in science and technology, and again, this is one of the messages of the science march, the science and technology will not flourish without the contributions of the federal government. Most basic resnerj natural and social sciences is done in universities and it gets done largely with funding provided by the federal government. Federal government provides about gift 5 for the support of basic research in this country. Most applied r d is applied in the private sector, about 70 of r d in this country is performed by private firms, but the federal government has important roles in that, particularly shaping policies that either encourage or discourage private Sector Research and development. In addition, of course, theres the whole domain of the application of science and technology to the provision of public goods. And this is, again, a domain because they are public goods where the government has the fundamental primary responsibility. National and Homeland Security, public health, environmental protection, those are public goods and its a public responsibility to see that they are provided and they cannot be adequately provided, again, without major contributions from science and technology. In addition, there is Stem Education, Science Technology education and of course that is part of the oversell education responsibility that in this country resides with states and local School Boards but the people around Stem Education play a supporting role. In addition, fill lan tlop pick partnerships with states and School Districts to lift up Stem Education are becoming ever more important. This was a major priority in the obama administration. President obama said early in his administration to his cabinet, i think one of the most single important things we can do to improve the future of our country is to lift our game in stem eneducation and he gave instructions to the various people in his administration with leverage in that domain that he wanted it done. Policy for science and technology in the federal government of course say shared responsibility its not just the white house its a shared responsibility of the executive branch with many departments agencies and offices that have responsibilities related to answer science and technology. And of course the could be gress. The overarching congressional science and Technology Authority sits in the house science space and technology committee, the city commerce Science Technology committee, the relevant appropriate operations committees and subexit tease including many im not going to take the time to mention, but, again, a number of them are listed here. Science and technology is dispersed very widely across the federal government both in the legislative branch and in the executive branch. And you get an idea of the range of executive Branch Science and technology actors in this slide ranging from the department of defense which includes darpa, the Defense Advance Research projects agency and the National Security agency as well as the director of defense, research and engineering, health and Human Services includes not just nih but both the centers for Disease Control and prevention in the fdar also science heavy organizations and so on down the list. And many countries have ministries of science and technology that try to concentrate a lot of this stuff under one minister. We dont were we have this dispersed model where the bulk of the science and Technology Talent is stred spread across the executive branch but a relatively small office of science and Technology Policy in the white house tries to oversee it all and distill whats in it for the president and his senior advisers. And thats shown in this picture. The center of science and Technology Policy in the white house since the second eisenhower term where the office of science and technology rost was initiated since 1976, its been ostp, ost had always been created by executive order. Ostp was created by statute in 19 76. President nixon had abolished the predecessor organization ost and then the Committee PresidentAdvisory Committee fired his adviser because he didnt like the advice he was getting and he liked even less that it was leaked, and when president ford came into office, president ford understood that the institution would be more durable if was created by statute rather than created by executive order which each president has to re to reissue. And president ford got his colleagues in the congress to pass the statute that created ostp. And that is why by the way the ostp director has to be Senate Confirmed because the office is created by statute and the statute specifies that the director is a senateconfirmed position in as many as four associate direct torsz are Senate Confirmed, at least one of which is in the room, dr. Row seena beer balm was the Senate Confirmed associate director for environment in the clinton second term. The ostp works very closely with others entities in the white house as well as with the departments and agencies across the federal government that ive already mentioned