10 - Young Scientists Summer Program Lecture - 08 August 2007

Norman P. Neureiter

Providing Science Advice to Governments

Listen [MP3 1:44:37] Slides [PDF]

Lecture Summary

The challenge of providing effective science advice to governments is discussed, based on Dr. Neureiter's personal experience in three different science advisory positions: as Assistant for International Affairs to the US President’s Science Advisor (1969–1973); as the first Science and Technology Adviser to the US Secretary of State (2000–2003); and as the Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC (2004 to present).

In this lecture, Dr. Neureiter distinguishes two kinds of science advice. The first concerns national policy for scientific research and technical education: recommending what kind of a research and education establishment a country should have and how to get it, depending on the country’s stage of economic development, its level of available resources in scientific manpower and money, and its long-term national objectives.

The second kind of science advice -- the focus of this talk -- concerns scientific inputs on broader issues: global warming and climate change, the role of nuclear weapons in national defense strategy, counterterrorism, risk of an avian flu pandemic, the world’s energy future, etc. National policy decisions on such issues are only partially technical, notes Neureiter, with scientific input being only one of many inputs to the process leading to a decision that is, ultimately, political.

Dr. Neureiter also addresses the challenges IIASA faces today in providing science advice: IIASA should inform governments around the world about the scientific realities of the results of its research, in areas which include economic and social science elements as well as those from the physical and life sciences. To do this effectively, IIASA must understand the decison making processes in the major countries and the EU in order to devise the best approaches for reporting and distributing the results of its work.

Speaker Biography

Norman P. Neureiter is the Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy (CSTSP) at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC. CSTSP was established by the MacArthur Foundation to provide objective scientific information to the policy community, based on the work of MacArthur-funded university centers as well as other non-governmental policy organizations.

From 2000–2003, Neureiter served as the first Science and Technology Adviser to the US Secretary of State.

In 1996, Neureiter ended his 24-year career with Texas Instruments (TI), during which he held a variety of positions in international business development, including manager of the TI Europe Division, vice president of TI Asia, and director of TI Japan. During a 5-year residence in Tokyo, he was active in the difficult negotiations and implementation of the US–Japan Semiconductor Trade Agreement -- a source of major trade frictions between the two countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Before joining TI, Neureiter was a US diplomat -- first as a science attaché in Germany and then in Poland (1965–1969). From 1969–1973 he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology (OST) as international affairs assistant to the President’s Science Adviser and was involved in President Nixon’s dramatic breakthroughs with both Russia and China.

With a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1952 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern in 1957, Neureiter worked several years as a chemist at the Humble Oil Co. (now part of Exxon) and had a two-year stint at the international office of the National Science Foundation (NSF) before entering the State Department and the US Foreign Service.

Neureiter was made a Distinguished Presidential Fellow for International Affairs of the National Academies in 2003. He is a member of the Academy’s Space Studies Board, the Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security (CSCANS), and a former member of the International Advisory Board, the Committee on Science and Technology in Armenia, the Committee on Science in Kazakhstan, the Committee on Policy Implications of International Students and Postdoctoral Scholars.

Neureiter remains a consultant to the Department of State and in that capacity serves as the US co-chair of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum -- a broad, bilateral cooperative program between the US and India.

In 2007, Neureiter was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Last updated: 03 Apr 2009