More effective utilization of the most active facilities is critically needed. Even though we should be putting more money into research to maintain some kind of balance between research and facilities, the pressing nature of the facilities and the investment required to construct and operate them is a factor that works in favor of getting more funds invested into facilities. We need to turn these trends around before the consequences of this under-investment in the research itself become more damaging and widespread. I would like to see a continuation of the course we started, namely, maintaining funding for the construction and operation of DOE facilities, but also expanding funding for the research component substantially. Particularly timely are the special opportunities now available for research in the US in high energy and nuclear physics, because of the new facilities now coming online.
Research funding is needed here.
We need to regain lost ground, after 10 years of constant budgets and receding amounts of research funding. The Office of Science received a great deal of support from the research community in getting that message across, including support from many APS members. That kind of input is essential, because it communicates to Congress what is important to researchers, as well as what is not as important. You maintain that the DOE facilities play an important role in education, particularly in providing hands-on training for budding young scientists. A The DOE for many years has had a very small education program, in which undergraduates visit the labs in the summer.