SEforA and Scientific Activism

The Rockefeller University recently hosted a talk by Michael Stebbins, Director of Biology Policy for the Federation of American Scientists and a member of the board of the recently formed organization Scientists and Engineers for America. As a former congressional fellow and director of FAS's biosecurity project, he has extensive experience with science policy and the political maneuvering that accompanies its formation and adoption. His talk was entitled The Rebirth of Scientific Activism.

Although little time was spent on when scientific activism experienced its initial birth, the history he provided of organizations such as FAS suggested a likely origin in the immediate aftermath of the initiation of the atomic era. Much of the focus was on defining what science activism is, and how it could be accomplished in the present political climate. One of the central ideas of his talk was that scientists have a lot of unfocused anger resulting from seeing their work on many topics either ignored or disparaged during the formation of policy and legislation. But most professional science organizations are ill-prepared to engage in the political process in any way beyond requesting more money for research in the field. He presented scientific activism as a way to convert this anger into action in ways separate from the budgeting process.