AMS President Arthur Jaffe Statement before the House Committee on Science Study Roundtable

October 23, 1997

Basic research in science and mathematics has been and still remains the most cost-effective and productive government investment in our country's future. We invested successfully in the 1960's, and we reap the harvests from these investments today. A National Science Foundation investigation documented that 70% of recent patents evolved from federally-supported, university-based research. During the last several decades, over half of the Nobel Laureates in science and Fields Medal winners in mathematics have been US citizens, immigrants, or foreign researchers who choose to work in the US. Our nation's long-range goal to remain the pre-eminent force in mathematics and science meshes exactly with the long-range goals for our society articulated by our political leaders.

A prudent science policy must make careers in mathematics and science attractive to all our youth; it must encourage exceptional students to pursue careers in research. In this domain quality transcends quantity. We need to cultivate and to nurture the cream of our nation's scientific talent. We must maintain an environment where original and productive mathematicians and scientists can continue to produce their research so long as it continues at a high level. The erosion of support for undirected research by individual investigators on projects of their own choosing raises special concern. Future revolutionary progress will be born and nurtured in that arena. Long-term, undirected and original thinking sparks the ultimate development of innovations that our society has come to expect.

It is important in setting research priorities that a broad range of top scientists and mathematicians play a central role. Practitioners in the trenches know best how to recognize the strengths and shortcomings of current policy. In addition to involving the statesmen of science and of science policy, we need to seek input and to heed the opinions of active, successful researchers working at the peaks of their imagination and creativity.

While we need to set our sights high for science, we seem to be aiming too low. Our school children display mediocre performance in the recent international bench-marking study of skills in mathematics and science. We need to reverse this trend, and society must understand the promise of science for a better tomorrow. We must educate our general population in a way that prepares our citizens to weigh issues and make decisions in an arena that requires greater knowledge of mathematics and science.

While we agree with the importance of balancing the national budget, every indicator of budgets shows that science funding has declined relative to percent of GDP and also relative to inflation. A continued erosion will have a long-term effect which may devastate America's preeminence in science. The presidents of over 100 major societies and umbrella organizations have signed a statement urging steps to reverse the current decline. The Committee on Science and the Council on Competitiveness are key to conveying to Members and to the public the need to re-establish science as a national priority by making the necessary investments for the future.