It is a challenging time for international scientists who want to visit the USA. Wait times for visas have increased dramatically since 2024. Many visa requests by scientists are denied for unexplained reasons. And international scientists who do manage to make it to the USA for a meeting are sometimes detained and grilled by immigration officials.
What impact will AI have on biomedical research over the next few decades? Answers to this question vary wildly. Some prominent scientists have expressed skepticism that AI will have anything more than a marginal effect on the future of research. In contrast, others have argued that we are approaching the “singularity,” wherein the pace of AI development will accelerate exponentially to create a superintelligence far surpassing human abilities, yielding cures to all human diseases in just a few years.
I would like to thank the ASPET Washington Fellows for inspiring me. Like many people, I’ve been feeling a little cynical about politics recently, and discouraged about the current state of the union in the USA.
Are great mentors born that way, or can mentoring be learned? When I joined the faculty at Emory University 25 years ago, I had very little experience in mentoring. Suddenly, I found myself running a research lab and taking on trainees who were depending on me for advice and wisdom. It was a challenging time, especially considering that I had no mentor training other than observing my own mentors during my years as a grad student and post-doc.
Why don’t more scientists in the U.S. run for political office? In many nations, scientists have risen to the very highest levels of political power. For example, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, the current President of Mexico, has a PhD in energy engineering and was a high-level researcher before getting into politics. The last 3 Presidents of China (Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin) all have backgrounds in engineering. Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the past century, and Angela Merkel, the long-serving Prime Minister of Germany, both had serious careers as chemists before politics came calling.
What is the value of going to a scientific meeting? There has been a lot of press recently about how scientists are cutting back on traveling to meetings and conferences. Many scientists have had grants canceled by the current administration, and/or funding delayed by the recent disruptions to normal government function. In response, some scientists are deciding not to travel, with attendance at a number of recent scientific meetings being noticeably lower than in previous years.
In the current political climate, should scientists speak up or keep their heads down to avoid unwanted attention? Dozens of scientists in the USA have been fired in the past couple of months (from universities, companies, and government) over comments made online. In addition to the risk of job loss, more than two-thirds of biomedical scientists (according to a recent survey) report being harassed on social media.
Membership in scientific societies has been slowly declining over the past quarter-century. Why? This change is part of a broader trend, as membership in many civic institutions has been declining for decades. This point was presciently made by Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone, published in 2000. Putnam noted that for most of the 20th century, a majority of people belonged to multiple civic groups, including bowling leagues, book clubs, neighborhood associations, parent-teacher organizations, rotary clubs, and many others. However, starting in the late 20th century and continuing to the present day, there has been a dramatic decline in participation in all of these types of civic groups.
Does it matter what scientific journal you publish your latest findings in? Many journals associated with non-profit scientific societies have been around for decades (some for over a century) and represent the gold standard in their fields. However, since 2000 there has been a massive proliferation of for-profit journals that have made it challenging for society journals to maintain their pipeline of submissions.
What is the purpose of scientific societies? This feels like a natural question to ask, given that this is my first month as President of ASPET. Leading ASPET in the right direction requires an understanding of the society’s purpose.
