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MARCH 16, 2004
A Talk with Bush's Science Czar John Marburger points to the Administration's spending in R&D, innovation, education, and space, and says "We still are a leader" When President Bush needs to talk science, he turns to John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. A physicist who previously held the top spot at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Marburger plays a key role in setting both funding and research priorities for the federal government, the largest research funding institution on earth. BusinessWeek Online Technology Editor Alex Salkever interviewed Marburger on Mar. 10 about America's place in the world technology pecking order. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation: Q: Everyone is talking about outsourcing in the software field undermining U.S. superiority in that key area. Is the threat overblown? A: I think it is somewhat overblown. We have fairly complicated markets in software. When it comes to new products and software that's at the edge of capabilities, the U.S. is a major player. We still are a leader, and it's going to be a long time before we lose that position. The Administration continues to invest heavily. We spend $2 billion year on research and development in information technology, with a lot of that going to software. There's a lot of investment in ideas for new architectures and ways to solve problems. Q: What can America do to make sure foreign grad students continue to come to the U.S. to study?A: U.S. institutions of higher education are the gold standard around the world. You have a higher-value-added degree from a U.S. institution than from anywhere else. It's true that China is producing many more students with advanced degrees, but the U.S. continues to attract the best talent. I've participated in a number of conferences with other countries, and Europe is concerned about its brain drain to the U.S. Even China sends students to us. There has been a fall-off in foreign student applications, which isn't surprising in view of the changes in the visa process. But the numbers are still high, and there's every indication we will continue to attract large numbers of foreign graduate students. Q: How to strike a balance to ensure that the U.S. doesn't lose out in the research race as more R&D centers pop up outside the country? A: It's not surprising that companies place R&D centers close to their markets. And emerging markets are very different from U.S. and European markets, so I don't think that will undermine our strength. The opportunities in the U.S. for entrepreneurial development are much better than anywhere else. And the quality of life here continues to be a major draw. That's not going to change for a long time. We do invest more in R&D than all other members of the G-8 combined. That's a lot of money -- $130 billion from the U.S. government. There's about $30 billion going into university-based R&D, which is linked strongly to graduate training and increasingly to undergraduate training. Continued investment in university research is a key to maintaining our competitiveness and the quality of life that attracts talent. This Administration has strongly supported increasing National Science Foundation fellowship stipends. Q: There has been a real drop in the number of undergraduates entering the hard sciences. Isn't that a problem? A: There has been, and this Administration is trying to invest selectively in areas that are most likely to be relevant to future economic development. The undergraduate situation is interesting. We lose a lot of students who aspire to science and engineering degrees between when they enter [college] and when they leave. I think there's something universities could do to change curriculums. And we can leverage our investments in university research to help those students, too. Q: An increasing percentage of breakthroughs are coming from research institutions outside the U.S. Does this indicate the U.S. is losing ground? A: We see rates of publication in journals and patents filed increasing for other countries, but I don't see significant weakness in our numbers. We still are the world leader in innovation. Basic science has always been an international phenomenon. The trick is to take advantage of the basic research done around the world and turn it into products that keep us on the leading edge.
BW MALL
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