While confident that the nation can maintain its scientific leadership internationally, the 55-year-old physicist and former Rice University provost acknowledges that, if American science is to fulfill its mission, it must do so in the context of a rapidly changing global environment, with all countries seeking to reshape and reidentify themselves in the post-Cold War world.
Foremost among NSF's objectives, Lane contends, is the identification and support of scientific endeavors that accommodate both the individual investigator's inclination to pursue pure research and the nation's need for applications of scientific discovery. Such applications could come, for example, in the form of advanced technology and commercial products that shore up America's commanding position in the increasingly competitive world economy.
In discussing agency goals in this regard, Lane uses the phrase "strategic basic research"--an idea that may well serve him in his efforts to balance pressures from Congress for NSF to do more ...
