WINTER 2010 SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Why Global Academic W. Brian Arthur Meet Stuyvesant Competition is On the Nature of Science Teacher Good for the U.S. Technology Elizabeth Fong Building communities, advancing science since 1817 • www.nyas.org Board of Governors Chair Vice Chair Treasurer JOHN E. SEXTON BRUCE S. MCEWEN JAY FURMAN President [ex offi cio] Secretary [ex offi cio] ELLIS RUBINSTEIN LARRY SMITH Governors SETH F. BERKLEY WILLIAM A. HASELTINE JEFFREY D. SACHS LEN BLAVATNIK STEVE HOCHBERG DAVID J. SKORTON NANCY CANTOR TONI HOOVER GEORGE E. THIBAULT ROBERT CATELL MORTON HYMAN IRIS WEINSHALL VIRGINIA W. CORNISH MADELEINE JACOBS ANTHONY WELTERS KENNETH L. DAVIS MEHMOOD KHAN FRANK WILCZEK ROBIN L. DAVISSON ABRAHAM M. LACKMAN DEBORAH E. WILEY BRIAN FERGUSON RUSSELL READ MICHAEL ZIGMAN BRIAN GREENE NANCY ZIMPHER International Governors Chairman Emeritus Honorary Life Governors MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS TORSTEN N. WIESEL KAREN E. BURKE GERALD CHAN HERBERT J. KAYDEN RAJENDRA K. PACHAURI JOHN F. NIBLACK PAUL STOFFELS President’s Council PETER AGRE, Nobel Laureate & Univ. Prof. and Director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Inst., Dept. Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health RICHARD AXEL, Nobel Laureate & University Professor, Columbia Univ.; Investigator, HHMI LEE BABISS, Global Head, Pharma Research, Roche Pharmaceuticals DAVID BALTIMORE, Nobel Laureate & President Emeritus, Caltech On the cover: Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President, ETIENNE-EMILE BAULIEU, former President, French Academy of Sciences Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. PAUL BERG, Nobel Laureate & Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Biochemistry, Stanford Univ. PHOTO: LONNY KALFUS LEN BLAVATNIK, Chairman, Access Industries GÜNTER BLOBEL, Nobel Laureate & Director, Laboratory for Cell Biology, Rockefeller Univ. SYDNEY BRENNER, Nobel Laureate & Distinguished Prof., Salk Inst. MICHAEL S. BROWN, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center LINDA BUCK, Nobel Laureate & Investigator for HHMI; member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center KAREN E. BURKE, Dermatologist & Research Scientist THOMAS R. CECH, Nobel Laureate & Distinguished Professor, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder MARTIN CHALFIE, Nobel Laureate & William R. Kenan, Jr., Prof. of Biological Sciences; Chair, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Columbia Univ. CECILIA CHAN, Managing Director, Gold Avenue Ltd. AARON CIECHANOVER, Nobel Laureate & Distinguished Research Professor, Tumor and Vascular Biology Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa, Israel GORDON CONWAY, Chief Science Advisor, UK Department for International Development PETER DOHERTY, Nobel Laureate & Researcher, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN; Univ. of Melbourne MARCELO EBRARD CASAUBÓN, Mayor, Mexico City EDMOND H. FISCHER, Nobel Laureate & Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry, Univ. of Washington EXECUTIVE EDITOR ALAN J. FRIEDMAN, former Director, New York Hall of Science Adrienne J. Burke COLIN GODDARD, Chief Executive Offi cer, OSI Pharmaceuticals JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, Nobel Laureate & Chairman, Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL GREENGARD, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience, Rockefeller Univ. Ash Ayman Shairzay PETER GRUSS, President, Max Planck Gesellschaft, Germany WILLIAM A. HASELTINE, President, The Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts; Chairman, Haseltine Global Health, LLC CONTRIBUTORS ERIC KANDEL, Nobel Laureate & Prof., Physiology & Cell Biology, Columbia Univ. W. Brian Arthur, Alan Dove, Jamie Kass, KIYOSHI KUROKAWA, former Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan; Adjunct Professor, RCAST, The Univ. of Tokyo; Adam Ludwig, Alana Range, Professor, Research Institute of Science and Technology, Tokai Univ. Ben Wildavsky, Chris Williams LEON LEDERMAN, Nobel Laureate & Pritzker Prof. of Science, Illinois Inst. of Tech.; Resident Scholar, Illinois Math & Science Academy GREGORY LUCIER, Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer, Life Technologies Corporation EDITORIAL OFFICE RODERICK MACKINNON, Nobel Laureate & John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Prof., Rockefeller Univ.; Investigator, HHMI 7 World Trade Center JOEL S. MARCUS, Chief Executive Offi cer, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. 250 Greenwich St, 40th Fl GERALD J. MCDOUGALL, National Partner, Global Pharmaceutical & Health Sciences Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP New York, NY 10007-2157 RICHARD MENSCHEL, Senior Director, Goldman Sachs RONAY MENSCHEL, Chairman of the Board, Phipps Houses; Board of Overseers, Weill Cornell Medical College Phone: 212.298.8655 JOHN F. NIBLACK, former President, Pfi zer Global Research & Development Fax: 212.298.3665 PAUL NURSE, Nobel Laureate & President, Rockefeller Univ. Email: [email protected] ROBERT C. RICHARDSON, Nobel Laureate & Senior Vice Provost for Research, Floyd R. Newman Prof. of Physics, Cornell Univ. PETER RINGROSE, Chairman, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, UK; former CSO, Bristol-Myers Squibb MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR EDWARD F. ROVER, President, The Dana Foundation F. SHERWOOD ROWLAND, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Chemistry & Earth Science, Univ. of California, Irvine David Smith BENGT SAMUELSSON, Nobel Laureate & Prof., Medical & Physiological Chem., Karolinska Inst.; former Chairman, The Nobel Foundation MEMBERSHIP & ANNALS ORDERS CHARLES SANDERS, former President, GlaxoSmithKline Phone: 212.298.8640 IVAN SEIDENBERG, Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer, Verizon Fax: 212.298.3650 ISMAIL SERAGELDIN, Director, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, The Library of Alexandria, Egypt PHILLIP A. SHARP, Nobel Laureate & Director, The McGovern Inst., MIT Center for Cancer Research Email: [email protected] ELLIOTT SIGAL, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer, Bristol-Myers Squibb MICHAEL SOHLMAN, Executive Director, The Nobel Foundation ADVERTISING INQUIRIES PAUL STOFFELS, Company Group Chairman, World Wide Research & Development, Pharmaceuticals Group, Johnson & Johnson Phone: 212.298.8655 MARY ANN TIGHE, Chief Executive Offi cer, New York Tri-State Region, CB Richard Ellis Email: [email protected] SHIRLEY TILGHMAN, President, Princeton Univ. HAROLD VARMUS, Nobel Laureate & President & CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center FRANK WALSH, Professor, King’s College London, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases Visit the Academy online GERALD WEISSMANN, Prof. of Medicine, NY Univ. School of Medicine www.nyas.org JOHN WHITEHEAD, former Chairman, Lower Manhattan Development Corp.; former Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs GEORGE WHITESIDES, Mallinckrodt Prof. of Chemistry, Harvard Univ. TORSTEN N. WIESEL, Nobel Laureate & Chairman Emeritus, The New York Academy of Sciences; Secretary General, Human Frontier Science Program Organization; President Emeritus, Rockefeller Univ. FRANK WILCZEK, Nobel Laureate & Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, MIT ERNST-LUDWIG WINNACKER, Secretary General, Human Frontier Science Program, former Secretary General, European Research Council; former President, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany ELIAS ZERHOUNI, Professor of Radiology & Bioengineering, Johns Hopkins University; Senior Fellow, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Senior Science & Technology Adviser, Sanofi -Aventis GUANGZHAO ZHOU, former Chairman, Chinese Association of Science & Technology 1144 1166 2288 CContentsonteWintern 2010 ts 2 SCIENCE IN OUR SCHOOLS 16 COVER STORY: SOLVING THE by Ellis Rubinstein SCIENCE EDUCATION CRISIS A letter from the president of the Academy by Alan Dove Acts of Congress, research studies, passionate scientifi c community leaders, and a new Academy initiative all 3 MEMBER NEWS aim to stem the collapse of American STEM education Awards, appointments, and announcements about Academy members 22 BOOK EXCERPT: WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY 5 INSIDE THE ACADEMY AND HOW DOES IT EVOLVE? Reports from the directors of Academy programs by W. Brian Arthur and news about Academy activities Adapted from Th e Nature of Technology, a new book by a pioneer of complexity theory 8 ESSAY: SCIENCE EDUCATION ACROSS BORDERS 26 ACADEMY CALENDAR by Ben Wildavsky NYAS conferences and meetings in January, Why academic globalization should February, March, and beyond be welcomed, not feared 28 DONOR PROFILE: 11 eBRIEFINGS: TYPE 2 DIABETES IN PENNY & THOMAS CAMPBELL JACKSON MINORITIES, GREEN BUILDING SOLUTIONS, by Adam Ludwig WATER & HEALTH, AND MORE Th e merger of science and the humanities in education is by Chris Williams an ongoing theme for one couple behind the Academy’s new Summaries of recent Academy eBriefi ngs NYC Science Education Initiative 14 MEMBER MEMOIR: TEACHING SCIENCE AND IMPARTING A PASSION as told by Elizabeth Fong Why the Chairman of the Biology and Geosciences Department at NYC’s Stuyvesant High School loves her job Letter from the President Science in Our Schools o Americans, a recent paragraph On p.19, you will learn about the Unlike in November 2002, when I ar- in Science may at fi rst seem un- brand new science educators’ initiative rived at the New York Academy of Sciences T surprising. It reads: that has been funded by Academy Gover- to discover that we had just over 200 student “In today’s economic crisis, the disin- nor for Life Herb Kayden and his highly members, today in the greater New York terest of [our] youth in scientifi c careers accomplished pharmacologist wife, Ga- area alone we have 6,500 graduate student and the public’s poor understanding of brielle Reem, and