Policy & Advocacy

The National Science Board is seeking nominations for its Vannevar Bush Award, which “honors truly exceptional lifelong leaders in science and technology who have made substantial contributions to the welfare of the Nation through public service activities in science, technology, and public policy.” According to the award website, candidates for the Vannevar Bush Award should…

Don Gibson (University of California, Davis) describes how he decided to start the Barbara on the Bill Campaign When I heard that the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that a woman will be on the $10 bill, I started reading several articles about which woman it should be. I was shocked that so few women…

The GSA Executive Committee has agreed to endorse a campaign led by GSA graduate student member Don Gibson and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, to get former GSA president Barbara McClintock on the new $10 bill. The Society leadership thought there was no better way to honor one of the true giants of…

GSA has responded to a request for information from NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences on “Innovative Approaches to Technology Development for the Biomedical Research Community.” In its comments, GSA argued that technology development need not be tied to specific research questions and that it can be difficult to anticipate all of the innovative…

Long-time GSA member and former Drosophila Board President Denise Montell gave a briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss her research on “Life, Death, and Resurrection at the Cellular Level.” This July 29 event was sponsored by the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus and organized by the Coalition for the Life Sciences.   “Life, Death, and Resurrection at…

Scientific progress runs on the intellect, curiosity, and passion of its practitioners fueled by the research dollars of its sponsors. The concern over research funding in biology in general and genetics in particular led GSA to survey our membership to learn more about the federal support of genetics at the level of individual principal investigators.…

The directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) have distributed their annual memorandum on science and technology priorities for the fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget focusing on efforts that span multiple agencies. The memo to the heads of Executive Departments and Agencies is…

NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences has announced that Alison Gammie will serve as the new director of its Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity (TWD). The division supports a variety of research training, career development, and diversity-building activities from the undergraduate to the faculty levels.   Gammie is currently Senior Lecturer in Molecular…

Today’s guest post was contributed by Andreas Prokop, of the University of Manchester. Along with research on the cell biology of neurons during development and ageing, he is engaged in many science communication and outreach projects. Follow him on Twitter: @Poppi62 More than a century of intense research with the fruit fly Drosophila has arguably turned…

Fruit flies suffer from an image problem. Maybe it’s the alliteration in the name, or the association with bananas, but Drosophila have become a go-to target for politicians looking to ridicule wasteful public spending. In February, presidential candidate and US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned the NIH for spending: “…a million dollars trying to determine…