Hi, my name is Sam Brinton.
And today I'm going to talk to you about the concept of standing with Science
and how we as students have an important role to play in science policy.
Now, my background in this is that I helped found and
lead an organization called Stand With Science
which connects graduate students and other students from across the world
to advocate for federal science and research funding.
I also, with that organization, helped spawn the National Science Policy Group.
The National Science Policy Group connects these graduate students and students
to have conversations on their own campus about Science Policy,
both in terms of advocacy, in terms of education, and in terms of solutions.
But before I get to those organizations,
I want to explain why it is important that we actually do Science Policy.
Where do the students fit in? And where do I fit in?
You see, I am a nuclear engineer.
And as a nuclear engineer, we get the same type of questions over and over and over again.
Why are you creating nuclear waste and
why are you trying to destroy the world with nuclear weapons.
And what about Fukushima? Those are great questions.
And there are not simple answers.
But science policy helps us by creating spaces
to have the conversation where a challenge and a solution meet.
You see, as a Scientist I can bring forward a possible technical solution
and if the policy and I work together, we can make the solution actually applicable.
Policy also has the really important space of taking a national interest and moving it forward.
So for example, when we fund science, we can help future solutions be possible.
The hard conversations of nuclear engineering are what got me into science policy.
Now, you may have other great challenges that you are invested in.
Those are why you should be involved in this conversation.
And those are why the organization that I am going to talk about actually exist.
When I got to MIT, I helped with an organization called
the Science Policy Initiative, the MIT Science Policy Initiative.
Now, SPI was a great group.
I got to involve myself in a lot of conversations that I didn't understand that well.
For example, when we started talking about GMOs, I am not really great at GMOs.
I am more a neutronics kind of guy.
But at least I could learn where my science would actually impact their policy.
And I could learn how to have a conversation with people that didn't say the same things as I did.
When I led a conversation on nuclear waste, they weren't all experts on nuclear waste
but we were able to discuss how biology was actually impacting nuclear waste.
Where is the radiation science currently standing.
And we also got to talk about what the different United States
government policy related to different technologies actually impacted us.
And that was a great great space to learn about all these
different types of science and all these different types of conversations.
And that's where I started to figure out that
the government was heavily involved in all of the Science that I was doing.
We started an organization called Stand With Science there at MIT SPI for one very specific reason.
There was this thing called sequestration that was just off on the horizon
and we didn't know what was actually going to happen.
But we had a conversation with some of our mentors and
they said that students needed to have a role in this conversation.
When sequestration was happening, it was supposed to be cutting funding across
the board for science as well as non-science activities.
The problem was that when it started hitting Science activities,
this was going to limit the research funding coming in.
When you are limiting research funding coming in, you are impacting our professors
which are more impacting us as students.
Because we are the ones who aren't going to be hired.
We are the ones who aren't going to be able to come to school and study.
And we are the ones who aren't going to be able to join the field.
And that's why Stand With Science was born.
Stand With Science had a very simple mission.
We want you to stand with federal science and engineering research.
A really simple topic.
You wouldn't believe how complex it is to start an organization with something that simple.
We started with a letter. One of my co-founders was really good at word-smithing.
So we wrote a letter to congress and hoped that a few MIT students would help us sign it.
After that letter was written, we decided that maybe we could try to share it with a few others.
And so we made a video.
A great video which I hope you will check out online that started to share why science was important
and why we as students cared about our science.
We got to tell really small blurbs about what we were working on.
We got to share why we care.
And my role in all of this started to come with the publicity and social media.
I like to be out there and like to really get the message across.
So my passion was taking this letter and this video and
making sure everyone in the entire country could hear about it.
And it worked really really well.
After ten thousand signatures, all natural, all coming from word of mouth, we had made an impact.
When we visited Congress, they were impressed that students,
especially graduate students who were very busy trying to graduate with their thesis writing
had taken the time to work on a project like this.
It didn't work in stopping sequestration but it did work in bringing our voices forward.
And that was what mattered.
The National Science Policy Group was formed after Stand With Science.
And this is taking my passion for the role of students in science policy beyond just advocacy.
You see, as a graduate student I was lucky.
I came to MIT and there was a science policy group for me to start studying with.
But not every student is as lucky.
For some of my fellow students back in Iowa, they didn't have a science policy group.
And they started facebooking me and emailing me and
saying Sam how do we get one started on our campus.
So we formed the National Science Policy Group or the NSPG.
And it helps brand new organizations start their own little space.
Let's have a lunch. Let's invite a professor.
Let's write a letter.
Let's do something to the editor.
Let's do something to take Science and Policy,
give them a little bit of a boost together and see what happens.
We also have professional groups and amazingly established groups like SPI
who are able to connect with the small groups and help them grow
and say well we had this challenge so here is how you can fix it in the future.
That's what NSPG is about.
It is about taking the Science Policy and getting it across the country
so that it's not only just the advocacy for our funding but it's having the conversation.
And that's where I will leave you.
You see, conversations with our Congressional members are the
most important way that we can have a role in Science Policy.
This is an image of myself and my senator Tom Hardkin from Iowa.
Now he remembers me well because of the red mohawk but
he also instantaneously knows that I am probably going to
start talking to him about something related to nuclear.
Because that's what my passion is.
And when I visit him, as I tend to do very often,
I make sure that we have a conversation even if it is difficult,
even if it is not comfortable, let's have a conversation on
where the Science is and where the policy hurdles are
and let's try to solve them together.
Now he is an expert at policy and I am an expert at nuclear engineering.
So together we can make a really great solution.
You have to keep the conversation going.
You have to keep meeting with your congressional members.
Write them an email, meet with their staffers.
Do what you can when they come to visit you back in your home state
or all the way over there in D.C.
Do something to make sure that your voice is heard.
It's your turn. Do you see something misunderstood or misrepresented?
i.e. nuclear engineering.
You need to be courageous, do your studies and
make sure that you can represent that challenge and
some possible solutions to those around you.
You also might see a community in need of collaboration or representation.
Just create that system of collaboration.
Connect those who have the experiences and those
who don't like the National Science Policy Group.
So that everyone gets to stand up and gets to walk forward together.
What about making an impact on the importance of Scientists and
engineers and how we are involved in the processes of policy.
That's simple. You do a conversation.
Whether it is with your mother explaining what your thesis is.
Or whether it is with your teacher thanking them for the education
that they gave you and giving them a little boost by
maybe visiting their classroom and telling them
about the great science that you are working on.
Or if it is with your congressional member and telling them
that this is something that is important to you and to their constituents.
By doing, by being courageous, by starting a system of collaboration
and by giving yourself a chance to have a conversation with those around you,
you will be able to have a great role in science policy and
I believe that you will make a great impact.
Thank you for your time and I really hope you have a great day.
