The possibility the United States is declining in its research capabilities in the scientific fields was a concern of a national advisory board on science, engineering and medicine.

According to an Oct. 13 article published by The New York Times, the National Academies called for an urgent and wide-ranging effort to strengthen scientific competitiveness.

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said he agreed with the call to action and other recommendations made by the 20-member panel.

“It is vitally important for the country to strongly invest in sciences and other areas,” Geoffroy said. “It is important that we keep our facilities at cutting-edge level.”

He said he feels facilities like the new greenhouse at the Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory help Iowa State do that.

According to the ISU Fact Book 2004-05 edition, the university has increased funding to both research and instruction. Instructional departments, however, are receiving a five-year average of 22.02 percentage in total funding, while research departments are getting a five-year average of 19.64 percentage.

John Hauptman, professor of physics and astronomy, said he feels the report is correct. He said the report was blunt to get its point across.

Hauptman said for every dollar (or euro) spent on pure scientific research, roughly three come back.

“Physicists have been bemoaning funding cuts for the past 20 years,” he said. “We have always been able to sit back and watch this happen. It’s always been a disaster, and it’s getting worse.”

Hauptman said the importance of maintaining leadership in scientific fields is paramount.

“When you lose leadership in pure science, you lose [leadership] in everything else eventually,” he said.

Hauptman said the link between funding and discoveries is very obvious to him, using the example of particle accelerators.

Particle accelerators take a particle, like an electron, speed it up to near the speed of light, collide it with an atom and thereby discover its internal parts, according to www.howstuffworks.com He said particle accelerators have been made since the 1930s, but are now used regularly in hospitals.

He said the importance of research is also apparent in the production side of the industry.

“A scientist doing something completely unique will force the industry to improve itself,” he said.

Hauptman said the best example of this is when a scientist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland, was trying to find a way to send scientific sketches to colleagues around the world more efficiently. He said the scientist created the World Wide Web, which is now an enormous center of commerce and communication.

Diane Rover, associate dean of the College of Engineering, said she hadn’t had a chance to read the article, but said National Academies is an excellent source for commentary on issues related to science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

Rover said the decline in funding for STEM fields is a systemic issue or systemic problem that will take a holistic solution rather than patching holes.

“It really is breaking down barriers on both sides, both the social and policy barriers,” Rover said.

According to The New York Times article, one major recommendation provided by the report was to create a corps of 10,000 teachers annually by getting their bachelor of science and then a parallel certification as a K-12 math or science teacher

Rover said the program would help enrich science and math programs in high schools, and create more awareness of engineering programs.

She said the programs are mutually beneficial because the teachers get a new topic to teach and the universities get to know what middle school and high school curriculum is like.

She said the National Science Foundation is hosting research experiments for teachers.