I am a post-doctoral researcher, employed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose research is funded by a grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Most of my colleagues who are also university scientists are similarly funded either by the DOE or the National Science Foundation (NSF). I don’t work for the government, I work for MIT, and as a result I have a considerable amount of academic freedom when it comes to offering my scientific and policy positions in public. Incidentally, this blog is hosted on my private home server and is in no way affiliated with MIT.
With full disclosure on the table, I’ve been following the story of the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. James Hansen was allegedly admonished by his superiors for discussing matters of policy in a public scientific talk that he was invited to present. He cried foul loudly in recent newspaper articles, saying that his views on global warming, the science behind it, and how that science should influence U.S. federal policy were being censored.
A lot of my colleagues reacted with disgust at the government, and a lot of my colleagues reacted with a healthy dose of skepticism toward Dr. Hansen. As a chief scientist in a top position, paid directly by the government, he is representing more than his personal policy views when he is invited to give a public talk. If he were acting as a private citizen, on his own dime, he’d of course be free to say or do whatever he wanted (I suppose). But as a representative of a much larger organization, and its complicated policies, he’s definitely got to think ahead about what policy goals he announces in public.
That said, all of us have been quite struck by Representative Sherwood Boehlert’s (R-NY) letter to NASA’s leadership, calling for a culture of openness to encourage serious discussion about the serious issue of global climate change. Boehlert also expresses worry that loud cries of censorship by such a prominent scientist would chill the government’s ability to employ the best scientists. It’s impressive that Boehlert, head of the House Science Committee, got involved so quickly!
You can find Boehlert’s full letter “in a recent AIP FYI bulletin”:http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=19479.
