A Record of Scientific Achievement
Reprinted with permission of the Times Union, Albany, N.Y.


Fifty years ago next month, President Harry Truman signed into law an act that created the National Science Foundation (NSF). This event has proved to be of enormous importance to the nation not only for the scientific advances and knowledge that have resulted from research sponsored by that agency, but also for the economic and societal benefits those discoveries has fostered. The foundation also has played a key role in promoting science literacy and science education.

From an economic standpoint, the practical applications stemming from NSF-sponsored research have been so profound that business and industry leaders routinely have spoken out in favor of the federal government increasing the agency's appropriation, even in times of austerity.

From an educational standpoint, the foundation supports programs that affect our lives even at the pre-K level, such as the PBS television series "Bill Nye the Science Guy." It supports curriculum development at the K-12 level and creates research experiences for undergraduate students, helping them to gain a love for discovery.

Its support for higher education also has played an especially great part in keeping our nation well-supplied with top-flight scientists and engineers. It provides traineeships and grants for promising graduate students and post-doctoral candidates and vital funding for faculty as they engage in some of the most sophisticated scientific explorations being conducted on our own planet — and in space. The foundation also supports the acquisition of scientific instrumentation. For example, the University at Albany recently received a $450,000 grant to purchase a state-of-the-art confocal microscope.

Foundation funding helps my colleagues at the university achieve great things in so many different disciplines — be it the kind of work done in anthropology, sociology, psychology and education, at our Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, or in biology, physics and chemistry. Foundation support of basic research has had a profound impact in the state university system and at virtually every other institution of higher learning and research in New York.

But NSF impact transcends the scholarly world. These are a few examples of how its basic research has profoundly affected New Yorkers:

  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive technology that helps physicians diagnose a wide array of illnesses. The leading work of Intermagnetics General Corp. of Latham on low-temperature superconductors for clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems was enhanced by NSF-sponsored basic research into superconductivity and nuclear magnetic resonance done a generation ago.

  • Optical fiber, a critical component in the ongoing communications revolution impacting the cable TV industry, long-distance telephone services and computer networks, emerged from NSF-funded research.

  • NSF supported much of the development of software on which the Internet depends. It funded a high-speed nationwide network, NSFNET, and regional supercomputer centers, such as New York's NYSERNet, which has since spun off PSI, a multinational corporation that employs thousands. Its network operations center is at the RPI Technology Park in North Greenbush.

  • NSF-funded research, begun in the 1960s and reported in 1972, identified acid rain and its effects at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire. Acid rain is a serious and persistent concern to our region.

Given the NSF's enormous importance, yet ironically low profile, we feel honored to help celebrate its 50th anniversary with a public convocation at 2 p.m. Monday in our campus center. We will also recognize the significant leadership of the agency's remarkable director, Rita Colwell.

This is also a perfect time to hail NSF's achievements to Congress, which is debating appropriation levels for next year. In his 2001 fiscal year budget, President Clinton proposed a 17.2 percent increase in NSF's overall budget. Foundation funding has lagged behind both the demand and potential and so this funding is dearly needed and overdue.

NSF research is truly a federal responsibility — the funding of basic science, which will not be funded by private industry and is based on the scientific merit of competing ideas. Even if we are only vaguely familiar with this small federal agency, we all owe a lot to it. The public and its members of Congress should by all means rally on behalf of NSF. It is a legacy worth leaving our children and grandchildren.

NSF/UAlbany — Links Getting Stronger All the Time University at Albany