Speakers and panelists referred often to the jump-start that Sputnik gave to U.S. research and education, especially in science. Federal support for academic research tripled between 1959 and 1964, noted Roger Geiger, professor of higher education at Penn State. The NDEA was a small miracle. Notable for his absence at the conference due to ill health was Glenn Seaborg, who, as a science advisor to President Eisenhower, fostered federal support for the combination of graduate education and basic research at universities. Politicians' failure to understand the crucial importance of research is at least part of the reason, he said, but the Clinton administration is trying to reverse this trend.
Studies show that up to half the economic growth in the U.S. since World War II is due to research.
The struggle isn't over, but bipartisan support for research is returning. We need to communicate effectively with our patrons about the relevance of research to the average citizen. M.R.C. Greenwood, chancellor of UC Santa Cruz, recounted how the NDEA made it possible for her to go to graduate school and become a research biologist. Greenwood, Gibbons and Marian Diamond, former director of the Lawrence Hall of Science, all called for better science education, from pre-school through university. Nobelist Charles Townes stressed the need for multiple sources of support for research and warned against researchers getting too cozy with private industry.