The Future of the Materials Initiative, National Laboratories, and Technology Policy

Extract

Following D. Allan Bromley's plenary lecture at the 1991 MRS Fall Meeting, the MRS Bulletin conducted a telephone interview with him on December 27. The following is an edited version of that interview. Bromley is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and also Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). His plenary address is published in the Bulletin's Material Matters column this month.

Bulletin: You have obviously managed to sustain excellent relations with the administration while also being an effective spokesperson for science. During your term in office, both the FCCSET (Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology) and PCAST (President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology) committees have been revitalized. Could you briefly describe the impact of their increased effectiveness?

Bromley: I think the best way to do that is to indicate what they're doing now. The FCCSET was established in 1976 at the same time that the OSTP was put in place through joint action of the administration and Congress. The charge to the Council was that of integrating and coordinating issues that transcend the boundaries of any single agency, so it focused on interdisciplinary and multi-agency programs. In the early days, however, it did not function as had been intended because the members were at too low a political level. Decisions reached in the Council could, later in the budget process, be disowned by more senior people in the agencies. Having recognized that problem and with strong support from President Bush, I was able to reconstitute the FCCSET so that its members now consist of secretaries or deputy secretaries from all the relevant agencies, as well as heads of independent agencies like EPA, NSF, and NASA.