CAMI Roundtable March 19 2009

The sky is not falling on science. Maybe there are some clouds, no, things that need attention.  Any problems are within the power of the United States to deal with in a way that maintains the vitality of the research enterprise.

Many other countries have realized that science and technology are key to economic growth and prosperity.  They're catching up to us. Americans [can not] rest on our laurels.

Closing the door to foreign professionals puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage and pushes jobs out of the country. Worse, it does so at a time when other nations are rolling out the welcome mat… If the U.S. spurns this human capital, it will find a home somewhere else. And that will be America's loss.

We have a different kind of war, an economic war.  The importance of investing in long-term research for winning that war hasn't been understood.

By almost any measure – academic prizes, patents granted to U.S. companies, the trade deficit in high-technology products – we’re losing ground while countries like China, South Korea and India are catching up fast. Unless things change, they will overtake us, and the breathtaking burst of discovery that has been driving our economy for the past half-century will be over.

We have to turn inward and take responsibility at the grass-roots level and try to deal with the education gap that affects our country. We are producing fewer math and science majors than China or India per year. Does this make sense when we want to move up the knowledge ladder? I think not.

Once admired as engines of American innovation, drug companies are now treated like Big Tobacco on Capitol Hill.