 Welcome to the second issue of The Science Leader,
the new digital newsletter of the Council of Scientific Society
Presidents. Its role is to strengthen our collegial networking, broaden
our knowledge sharing on emerging issues and enhance interactive
idea analysis among our unique peer groups of science leaders.
In this issue you'll find compelling articles on CSSP news and current
events in science. We're pleased to include society-based articles that
facilitate better understanding among colleague organizations within
CSSP - so send them, please! Each issue also contains member and alumni
profiles, so you may better know one another as the truly fascinating
individuals you are. Who would have guessed that our Past Chair owned a
mine in
Mongolia?
Networking takes on many electronic dimensions, and you are in one of
them right now. Nothing, however, substitutes for the nuanced,
cue-laden, five-sense, face-to-face networking with science and
political leaders that constitutes the May and December meetings. If
you have a question about publishing expenses, the next big thing in
the open- access movement, society governance models or a thorny
science ethics dilemma, chances are very good that one of your 60
sister societies or federations holds the answer and that you can find
it over breakfast, lunch or hors d'oeuvres. If you want to know what's
next in the plans of any science-relevant government agency, nationwide
organization, major foundation, national academy, or national
commission, ask its first or second in command at a CSSP meeting.
It is easy to get discouraged by flat or falling science budgets and
the realization of the ultimate tragedy of the commons at whole-earth
scale. Like it or not, we inhabit an engineered planet. Humanity is
causing heating of the whole world and acidifying and depleting the
whole ocean. Science is hope, however, and the only hope of
intelligently rather than accidentally engineering the planet w
ill come from teams of the 1.4 million members of CSSP.
Join with us and help lead the way.
Dr. Martin A. Apple
CSSP President
Dr. Peter A. Jumars
CSSP Chair
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