Rebecca Rutstein and the Ocean Memory Project, "Blue Dreams" (2023), still from the 2 minute and 40 second digital video.

Past Events

Issues events connect our contributors with a dynamic community of interested readers, experts, and policymakers. These events emphasize the unique role Issues plays in raising the level of debate among all those who appreciate the critical contributions of science and technology. We also occasionally highlight events from our partnering institutions—the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Arizona State University—and other events around the national capital that will be of interest to our audience.

August 17, 20232:00pm–3:00pm

What Happens to Global Science If the United States and China Quit Collaborating?

Over the last 40 years, international scientific collaboration between the United States and China in particular has increased global research productivity. But more recently, as the US policy community has become focused on competitiveness and security, these collaborations have begun to decrease, and many Chinese scientists and students are now leaving the country.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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June 27, 20233:00pm–4:00pm

Federal Research Funding: Is There a Fairer Way to Share the Pie?

Fewer than 7% of research-active institutions receive more than half of all federal funds for university research and development. Recently, multiple efforts have attempted to spread federal research funding more evenly, with the idea that broader distribution could strengthen national innovation by diversifying who does research and by spawning more regional technology-based economic development. 
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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April 20, 20231:00pm–2:00pm

How Can Academic Culture Change to Combat Sexual Harassment?

Academia is second only to the military in its prevalence of sexual harassment against women, surveys report, and STEM fields are no exception. Sexual harassment harms individuals, science, and society. Although awareness of the issue has grown in recent years, legal mechanisms like Title IX do little to prevent it from happening, and bureaucratic mandates often alienate survivors.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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February 27, 20234:00pm–5:00pm

How Does Research-Policy Collaboration Help Scientists and Science?

Despite frequent calls for more evidence-based policy, developing meaningful relationships and ongoing collaborations between scientific researchers and policymakers is difficult. Some of the hurdles include constraints on researchers’ time and a lack of institutional incentives to engage.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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November 29, 20226:00pm–7:30pm

Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club: LOCK IN by John Scalzi

Science fiction can have real policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. For the next gathering of our Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club, we have selected Lock In by John Scalzi. The detective novel imagines a world in which a pandemic left 5 million people in the United States alone with lock in syndrome: fully conscious but unable to move.
Online Event
, Washington, DC
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November 1, 20223:00pm–4:00pm

How Can the CHIPS and Science Act Deliver on Its Promises?

The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in August, is one of the most significant pieces of science legislation in years. With $180 billion for research and development over the next five years, it aims to bolster the semiconductor industry as well as federal science agencies like the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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October 24, 20221:30pm–2:30pm

Is There Really a STEM Workforce Shortage?

Claims that there is a significant shortage of scientific and technical talent have been a running feature of STEM workforce policy discussions since the 1950s. The outcomes of these discussions influence not only federal investment in education and training, but also labor and immigration policy, as well as efforts to diversify the STEM workforce.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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September 22, 202212:00pm–5:00pm

Endless Frontier Symposium 2022

On September 22, 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (National Academies), in collaboration with the Kavli Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Issues in Science and Technology, will host the “Endless Frontier Symposium 2022: Research and Higher Education Institutions for the Next 75 Years.”
National Academy of Sciences Building
2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20418
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June 1, 20226:00pm–7:00pm

Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club

Science fiction can have real policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. For the next gathering of our Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club, we have selected All Systems Red by Martha Wells.
Zoom
, Washington, DC
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May 23, 20223:00pm–4:00pm

What Is Biosecurity for the Twenty-First Century?

After September 11 and the anthrax attacks in 2001, the United States adopted a top-down governance structure for bioterrorism that famously employed “guns, gates, and guards” to prevent attacks, while keeping track of suspicious “insiders” who might cause harm.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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March 24, 20223:00pm–4:00pm

Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century

Vannevar Bush’s influence on the history and institutions of US science and technology is unrivaled, but he remains relatively unknown outside science policy circles. G. Pascal Zachary, Bush’s biographer and editor of a new collection of Bush’s writings, The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush (Columbia University Press, 2022) talks with historian of science and technology Emily Gibson about this remarkable figure, and why Bush’s pioneering insights and lucid writings deserve a wide audience today.
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February 17, 20221:00pm–2:00pm

Can Bureaucracy Start a Climate Revolution?

The struggle to limit carbon emissions often pits sustainable energy against fossil fuels. But does it have to be this way? As Kartikeya Singh writes in a new essay for Issues in Science and Technology, India’s carbon-heavy government ministries have shown a surprising ability to engineer deep change: the nation brought electricity to over half a billion citizens between 2009 and 2019, then presided over a grid where wind and solar became cheaper than power from coal.
Zoom Webinar
, Washington, DC
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February 2, 20226:00pm–7:00pm

Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club: Infomocracy by Malka Older

Science fiction can have real policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. For the third gathering of our Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club, we have selected Malka Older’s Infomocracy. The novel imagines a future where politics has become both simplified and infinitely more complex, thanks to the omniscient Information, which has led the transition from warring nation-states to a seemingly tidy form of corporate-ish global micro-democracy.
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December 17, 20213:00pm–4:00pm

Does Engineering Education Need a Revolution?

The basic structure of engineering education was set in 1955 and hasn’t changed much since. Rather than hands-on problem solving, classes emphasize theory, while a “pipeline mindset” perpetuates a system designed to keep people out rather than welcome them in.
Zoom Webinar
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December 2, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

Can Dinosaur Fossils Make Science More Accessible?

Pretty much every dinosaur skeleton you see has been painstakingly excavated from rock by people with precision, skill, and creativity. What they don’t have are paleontology degrees, and what they don’t get is money or credit.
Livestream
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October 21, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

Is It Time to Throw Away Our Résumés?

Society is failing Americans without college degrees. Research shows that up to 30 million workers without four-year degrees are drastically underpaid, and have the skills to earn 70% more than what they’re currently making.
Livestream
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October 13, 20216:00pm–7:00pm

Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson Science fiction can have real science policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. Having successfully debuted our Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club with a spirited discussion of Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous, we are excited to announce our second book selection: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, selected as one of Barack Obama’s favorite books in 2020.
Zoom Webinar
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September 15, 20212:00pm–3:00pm

How Do You Make a Policy Idea Go Viral?

Directly informing policymaking is the goal of many researchers and academics in policy relevant fields. But no matter how original or brilliant a policy idea is, it can struggle for traction in a sea of articles and opinion pieces.
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August 25, 20213:00pm–4:00pm

How Do We Build Infrastructure for a Future We Can’t See?

The United States is preparing to spend $1 trillion on repairing and upgrading the country’s infrastructure. There will be improvements to traditional systems including transportation networks and energy grids, but the proposed federal funding will also go toward increasing the nation’s climate resilience and expanding broadband internet access.
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August 11, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

Is Cutthroat Science Hindering Discovery?

Laboratories around the world are under fire for their lack of diversity, a culture of harassment and bullying, rigid hierarchies, and research that cannot be reproduced. Is the entire research system to blame?
Livestream
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June 1, 20212:00pm–3:00pm

Imagining a New Future for Nuclear Power

If nuclear power is to be an important source of carbon-free energy in the United States, the industry must confront its history and acknowledge why public support for this source of energy has fallen over the last half century.
Zoom Webinar
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April 28, 20211:00pm–2:00pm

Can Alternative Meats Bring the Heartland More than Burgers?

The rise of alternative meats—either plant-based or lab-grown—could bring huge benefits for the environment, public health, animal welfare, and potentially even rural workers and the national economy. Currently, progress in this field is slow—alternative meats make up less than 1% of the total meat market share.
Zoom Webinar
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April 13, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

Do Inventors Bear Responsibility for the Effects of Their Inventions?

Every year scientists who have made great inventions receive Nobel Prizes recognizing their “benefit to humankind.” Yet for all the profound ways scientific progress has impacted our lives, many inventions have affected the world in ways that their creators did not imagine.
Zoom Webinar
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March 16, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

What Does “Food Security” Really Mean?

Global security depends on everyone having enough food. Scientist Molly Jahn started her career inventing squashes and melons. But that work led her to wonder and worry about the security of our global food supply in the face of changing climate, growing population, and new forms of war.
Twitter Livestream
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January 19, 20214:00pm–5:00pm

How Will Robot Trucks Change American Life?

Robotic trucks are beginning to roll out, carrying cargo and promises of revolutionizing freight hauling, reducing traffic, and lowering pollution. But previous waves of automation have eliminated millions of jobs in the United States.
Zoom Webinar
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December 8, 20204:00pm–5:00pm

Can Innovation Solve Society’s Problems?

Since World War II, the United States has famously funded research to advance all fields of science and innovation. The resulting wave of discovery and knowledge has benefited Americans by creating new disease-fighting drugs, increasing economic productivity, and sparking an information revolution through advances like the internet and GPS.
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September 23, 202012:00pm–1:00pm

What Science and Technology Owe the National Defense

  On September 23, 2020, Jamie HolmesLt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, and Margaret O’Mara explored a pivotal moment in US history and its implications for today’s debates over technology and national security.
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September 11, 202012:00pm–1:00pm

Should We Patent a COVID-19 Vaccine?

Quashing the COVID-19 pandemic is going to require companies to manufacture billions of vaccines at an affordable price. Conventional wisdom says that the best way to do this requires easing up on patent restrictions.
Zoom Webinar
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July 16, 202012:00pm–1:00pm

Jennifer Jacquet and James Prosek in Conversation

Join us for a DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous (DASER) Experiment online. Launched in 2011, DASER is a discussion forum providing a snapshot of multidisciplinary projects and fostering networking across disciplines. This month, environmental scientist Jennifer Jacquet and artist and writer James Prosek engage in a conversation on Zoom with time for Q&A and interaction with the audience.
Zoom Webinar
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July 8, 20201:30pm–2:45pm

COVID-19, DACA, and the Responses of Hispanic Serving Institutions

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are the fastest-growing type of enrollment-based Minority Serving Institutions, serving the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of students, advancing the full spectrum of human knowledge, and invigorating the cultural, social, and economic horizons of the regions they serve.
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