Obama’s initiative on science diplomacy expands

SEP 20, 2010

David Kramer

In a broadening of the Obama administration’s initiative to establish ties with Muslim nations , three more prominent scientists have been appointed as “science envoys” to countries in central and southeast Asia and to Africa. The naming of former NSF director Rita Colwell , Lehigh University president Alice Gast and Purdue University plant breeder and geneticist Gebisa Ejeta doubles the number of scientist-diplomats who have been enlisted to the unpaid, part-time jobs by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton . The appointments also expand the scientific outreach effort to include countries that do not have majority Muslim populations.

Clinton appointed the inaugural trio of science envoys last November , billing it as a step toward implementing President Obama’s June 2009 Cairo pledge to take measures to improve US relations with the Muslim world.

Former National Academy Of Sciences president Bruce Alberts, former National Institutes of Health director Elias Zerhouni and Nobel laureate chemist Ahmed Zewail, visited a combined 11 Muslim-majority nations earlier this year.

The new trips

Colwell’s portfolio will include Bangladesh, where she has done research on cholera, and to Malaysia and Vietnam. She is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world. Gast is to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. A chemical engineer, she has conducted studies on surface and interfacial phenomena, particularly the behavior of complex fluids. Ejeta will serve as envoy to his native Ethiopia, as well as to Tanzania and South Africa. Ejeta won the 2009 World Food Prize for his major contributions in the production of sorghum, one of the world’s five principal grains.

Oddly, the new envoy appointments were announced by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Relations who has taken credit for initiating the science envoy program in 2009. Lugar said Clinton had asked him to make the announcement, which he did as he accepted an award from CRDF , a nonprofit organization that promotes international scientific cooperation. Lugar was being feted for his sponsorship of programs, known as the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program , to prevent nuclear proliferation after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Alberts, who is now editor-in-chief of Science, received a CRDF award honoring his efforts to improve science education and to foster national science academies in the developing world.

David Kramer