Top-Level Science Advisers From Six Nations Huddle Privately

A secluded meeting at a New York estate offers the opportunity to talk openly and informally about science issues WASHINGTON--Top-level science advisers from a half-dozen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, recently held a weekend conference in the countryside near New York, The Scientist has learned. At least one participant has suggested that the late-February meeting could turn out to be the first in a series of regularly held gatherings of top international science advisers. The advisers met at Seven Springs, a wooded, 200-acre estate that is owned by Rockefeller University. The meeting, held Feb. 22-24, was organized by the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government as part of a five-year effort to help government make better use of scientists and their specialized knowledge. The conference was intended to be a tightly held secret shared among the principals and the commission. D. Allan Bromley, special assistant to President Bush on science and technology and cochairman of the meeting, declined to discuss the gathering directly when he was asked about it later at a National Academy of Sciences symposium on national research strategies. "We agreed not to say anything about it," said Bromley, who is also director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. "We all felt that no good would come from talking publicly about what went on." The other cochairman of the meeting was Yuriy Osipyan, vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and special adviser on science to President Mikhail Gorbachev. Also participating were William Stewart, science adviser to British Prime Minister John Major; Wataru Mori, cochairman of the Council for Science and Technology that reports to Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu; Hubert Curien, French minister of research and technology; and Filipo Pandolfi, vice president of science and research for the European Community. A seventh invited participant, German science minister Heinz Riesenhuber, was unable to attend. A source close to the meeting, who requested anonymity, said that whether or not the winter retreat will yield useful ideas on carving out a larger role for science in tackling global issues, the opportunity for these scientists to engage in one-on-one conversations will be more valuable than many formal sessions sponsored by their governments. "You shouldn't underestimate the benefits of their being able to sit next to one another, without any interpreters, aides, or as part of an official delegation," he noted. "They had a chance to speak openly [in English] on any number of issues, and build the kind of relationships that could be quite useful for their countries." The Carnegie Commission is chaired jointly by William Golden, a retired New York businessman and science devotee, and Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate and president emeritus of Rockefeller. The idea for the meeting came from Golden, author of two books on providing science advice to national leaders and the man credited with helping to define that job in the period immediately after World War II. Golden joined forces with Bromley, who extended the invitations to his counterparts in the industrial world. Neither Golden nor Lederberg would comment on the meeting. The open dialogue that reportedly flowed during a day and a half of informal discussions is precisely what the Carnegie Corporation of New York hoped to foster when it created the commission in 1987. "We're interested in process," says David Beckler, associate director of the commission, in explaining the group's mission. "By focusing on the process, we hope to make a contribution to improving the quality of the advice that the government receives on issues that have a scientific and technological component to them." That process is important as well to Osipyan, who also spoke at a recent National Academy meeting. Although he, too, declined to discuss details of the February retreat, he was willing to speculate about the next step for the science advisers. "I think that we will be asking them [the commission] to get a little more involved in planning the agenda," he said. "And I would hope that we could meet again, maybe with a few others." Asked to describe the ideal set of participants, Osipyan replied, "G-7 plus one, I hope." This so-called G-7--for "Group of 7"--consists of the world's seven leading democratic industrial nations: the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Canada. The "plus one" is the Soviet Union.

Top-Level Science Advisers From Six Nations Huddle Privately

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of