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22 March 2012
OSA CEO Testifies on Capitol Hill about Importance of R&D Funding
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer
The Optical Society
+1.202.416.1435
lmeyer@osa.org
OSA CEO Testifies on Capitol Hill about Importance of R&D Funding
Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee Considers FY 2013 Funding Levels
WASHINGTON, Mar. 22 – Testifying on Capitol Hill today, Optical Society (OSA) CEO Elizabeth Rogan called for sustained federal investments in research and development (R&D) funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) FY 2013 budgets. Rogan testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, which has jurisdiction of NSF and NIST’s budgets.
The Committee is currently considering President Obama’s FY 2013 budget requests for the Departments of Commerce and Justice and science-related agencies. They will then make recommendations to the full House Appropriations Committee, to be included in the FY 2013 spending bills.
“Continued, sustained investments in R&D programs at NSF and NIST will help revitalize U.S. manufacturing, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and spur innovations that will lead to a better quality of life for millions of people in the U.S. and around the globe,” said Rogan in her testimony.
Rogan’s testimony focused on three fundamental reasons for supporting the President’s NSF and NIST budget request – ensuring the nation’s long-term economic prosperity and competitiveness; strengthening advanced manufacturing and; the need for certainty of funding for long-term research projects. She also gave specific examples of research from NSF and NIST that impacts everyday life, such as the invention of the laser in the 1960s, research at the University of California-Davis that transformed the iPhone into a medical imaging device, and research into energy-efficient technologies such as LEDs and organic solar cells.
“Federal investments in research and development are vital to ensuring our country’s long-term economic prosperity and competiveness,” said Rogan in her testimony. “Work being done in labs and classrooms today leads to the businesses, innovations and jobs of tomorrow.”
More information about the hearing and the appropriations process is available on the Appropriations Committee’s website.
About OSA
Uniting more than 130,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916, OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
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