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Sunday, May 11, 2008
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Scientists now look to public office

WASHINGTON: Daniel Suson has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked on the superconducting super collider and a forthcoming NASA probe. Now he is heading back to school to take on an even trickier task — getting elected to public office.

He is among a growing number of scientists in the United States who feel slighted and abused in the public debate in recent years and are mobilising for a new effort to inject “evidence-based decision making” into public policy.

On Saturday, Dr. Suson, dean of engineering, mathematics and science at Purdue University Calumet, will join more than 70 other scientists, engineers and students at a hotel at Georgetown University for a crash course on elective politics.

“I’ve always been interested in politics, but my participation has been limited to yelling at my television,” said Jason Haeseler, a Florida engineer and former registered Republican who will take the class and hopes to run for office as an independent.

The workshop includes advice on putting together a campaign staff, raising money, keeping a budget and using the Internet to their advantage. There will be networking and cocktails, staples of Washington politics.

They will also learn the art of dealing with the media and mastering the all-important sound bite — something of a challenge for scientists more comfortable with the arcane.

Science has become a part of every major issue of modern life, said neurologist Alan Leshner, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “At the same time that’s happening, there’s increased tensions between science and society,” he said.

Scientists cite the debate over global warming as an example of having their insights and warnings cast aside. They have also complained the Bush administration has censored some of their research on warming and endangered species.

Scientists are pushing for a presidential debate this year focussing on climate change and other science issues.

The group running the course, Scientists and Engineers for America, does not ask political affiliation of its students and has teachers from both parties, said Lesley Stone, a lawyer who runs the organisation. “Scientists are trained to solve problems and use evidence-based decision making and we think those are really useful skills for elected officials to have,” she said. — AP

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