Budgets are what the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy is all about, according to its director, Dr. John H. Marburger III '62.
"Policy gets translated into action through budgets from the President," Marburger said in a telephone interview last week. He is currently "working on establishing priorities for the fiscal year '05 budget request."
"We're just about to put out a memorandum to all the science agencies that include the priorities for the coming year that the agencies should consider when preparing their budgets for the fiscal year 2005," Marburger said.
He said there is a lot of government support for scientific research and expects Congress and the Bush administration to support a strong science budget because Congress is convinced that science drives technology, which drives the economy.
But that support, Marburger said, does not automatically translate into a fat funding package.
"So the will is there and the question is, 'How much money can we apply to the priority?' And I honestly don't know what the impact of the economy will be when we finally get around to putting numbers on things for next year's budget," Marburger said.
This year's budget request for fiscal year 2004 is pretty strong on science, according to Marburger. He noted a "substantial increase" in the budget in large part to finance development in the Department of Defense for technologies seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tech and the economy
"But, even so, things like nanotechnology and computing technology continue to be priorities for the nation. And we've already made a big continuing investment in medical research," Marburger said. "I don't think they will be damaged or impaired by the weak economy."
What might suffer as a result of the economic downturn are areas of science that don't figure among "fashionable priorities," according to Marburger.
"There are a lot of opportunities in science today and there are really exciting things happening in many different fields, and we'd like to capitalize on those and seize those opportunities," Marburger said. "And those are the areas, if they're not falling in some fashionable priority like nanotechnology, that maybe they won't get funded as much as they could."
Marburger said Congress believes in the link between science and the economy. But he also said he doesn't think anyone views investment in science as a key catalyst for short-term economic stimulus, which is what most people agree today's economy needs. Marbur-ger himself acknowledged that science is more likely to have a positive impact on the economy in the long run.
"We need to keep up investments in science to maintain leadership in a technologically based economy, but we're not going to fix this current economy by investments in science," he said.
Whatever the effect of the current economic situation on funding for science and technology, Marburger thinks the war in Iraq has sharpened the focus on science. He said he believes such things as the precision guided bombs used in the war demonstrated the importance of technology for 21st century military missions.
"All of those capabilities were really impressive and they, of course, were widely visible in the media. And I think it gave everyone an appreciation for just how important technology is for the military missions," Marburger said.
Beyond the battlefield
The technologies originally developed for the military — like the ones seen in the war in Iraq — often have implications beyond the battlefield, he said.
"Our cell phones and our ability to communicate and know where we are," he said, "these are interesting for civilian applications, too. And, undoubtedly, there are going to be industries created on these — there are industries created on these — civilian applications of technology," he said.
And whatever these technologies are used for — military or civilian purposes — they started with science, with research in materials and lasers and understanding the basic properties of matter, Marburger said.
"And I think that all of those kinds of basic research things are going to — are benefited somewhat from this wartime experience," he said.
Directing research
Before Marburger was thinking about budgets and how they would affect science and technology policies, he was the director of the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and worked in academia at the University of Southern California and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he also served as president from 1980 to 1994, according to the OSTP website.
Marburger said that for most of his career, he had not really focused on science policy. "I was more interested in science, itself, and in the management of science," he said. "So I got into science policy through the back door, as it were. And I've learned a lot more about it in the last few years. But this was—I'm a bit surprised to find myself with this job. But I'm comfortable with it," Marburger said.
Taking on the role
In a speech given at the Amersham Biosciences and Science Annual Award for Young Scientists held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. last November, Marburger made sense of his transition from hands-on science to administration.
"I became an administrator out of the same fascination for how things work that drove me toward science in the first place. My job today as advisor and policy director for the world's largest patron of science could be viewed as the logical endpoint of a process that began more than a half century ago in my mother's kitchen, making toys of blocks and string. At each step I thought I was simply doing science," Marburger noted in the speech.
Marburger received an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton in 1962 and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in 1967. And it is as a physicist that he still sees himself.
"When people ask me what I do, my first impulse is to say that I am a physicist. That has been my self-image for as long as I can remember, even before I knew that what I wanted to be in life was called by the name 'physicist.' I know that I am very fortunate in this respect. I never had to worry about what I should do with my life," he said in his speech.
He said his favorite memories of Princeton are springtime and, more importantly, the relationships he built at the University.
"I enjoyed the friendships and the intellectual stimulation that I found there for the first time. Certainly, the ambiance — both physical and intellectual — were important for my development as a scientist and as a scientist who eventually became an administrator and involved in policy. The interest and the knowledge that made it possible for me to have those jobs began at Princeton," Marburger said.
In addition to his role as director of the OTSP, Marburger also serves as the science adviser to the President, is co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, and supports the President's National Science and Technology Council.
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