One is to promote rapid and widespread communication of high-quality geophysical research among its members. In pursuit of this aim President-elect McNutt advocates electronic publishing of AGU's dozen or more journals as a way of extending rapid communication of research results. It provides much better service to institutions, is more economical than stocking back issues of journals, and it conserves resources. The other objective of AGU is to support public education, and furnish informed advice, on matters and policies concerning Earth and its space environment. We at AGU can do a lot more to provide scientific information to decision-makers at local, regional, national, and international levels.
Scientists are often reluctant to speak out because new data is constantly streaming in.
But sound policy requires the best scientific input, so at some point scientists must be willing to make statements. In addition to encouraging individual scientists to contribute their knowledge to discussions of policy issues, McNutt's goal is to promote an expansion of AGU's public affairs efforts. Once in office, she hopes to encourage an expansion of the AGU program that supports science-trained Congressional fellows, who work as staffers on federal legislative committees related to education and public policy issues. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, McNutt holds a B.A. in physics from Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a Ph.D in Earth sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California. After postdoctoral research at Scripps, she taught at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, then took a position with the U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California to work on earthquake prediction.