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The Hurford Science Diplomacy Initiative

Sponsored by The Hurford Foundation, the Hurford Science Diplomacy Initiative aims to help early career scientists understand the global context for their work and thus enable them to work more effectively at international levels.

Course Title

Science Diplomacy: The Context for Thinking Globally about the Biological and Medical Fields

Instructors

Mandë Holford and Jesse Ausubel

Synopsis

The shorthand term Science Diplomacy (SD) spans wide-ranging activities connecting science and technology with international affairs. With particular attention to global health and environment, the seven-week course of seminars samples the current landscape of SD issues, programs, and organizations. The goals of the course are to help early career life scientists: (a) think more systematically about the global potential of their work, including ethical, political, and economic implications; and (b) become acquainted with the people, networks, and resources available for scientific cooperation, including for those nations with whom cooperation may be especially difficult.

Science and technology are central for many national and international negotiations and policies, and SD activities include international collaboration to mitigate transnational threats such as infectious diseases or biological weapons. For example, scientists have played important roles in recent efforts to combat spread of the Ebola and Zika viruses, mitigate climate change, and denuclearize Iran.

Open channels of communication among working scientists and physicians, and among science advisers to governments, especially across the borders of nations in conflict, offer valuable means for informal diplomacy, as has been the case between Israel and Egypt as well as between the U.S. and Cuba. The Internet and other technological innovations have sharply increased capacity and appetite for global scientific collaborations, often based on open access and transparency, and these in turn, like the Global Ocean Observing System, affect the practice of both diplomacy and science. SD can matter for how we address issues as wide ranging as the weaponization of genetic editing (CRISPR technology), security of cyber spaces, and equitable diffusion of personalized medicine.

Challenges for SD include: developing a classification of activities and a common language about best practices, identifying tangible initiatives to address changing needs and goals, and convincing governmental agencies that SD should be an explicit part of their long-term roadmaps for action and funding. The increasing interest in SD makes this an opportune time for scientists early in their careers to learn and evaluate its possibilities.

This course is a sequel to the ones previously offered, and participants from prior years are welcome to attend again. We will range from Antarctica to Syria and addiction to windmills. Several sessions will use clickers, or classroom response systems, to collect and analyze views of the course participants. About ten of the most engaged course participants (limited to those with RU affiliation) will be invited to join a field trip to Washington, DC to meet with prominent SD practitioners and tour relevant institutions.

The course is part of the University’s Hurford Initiative on Science & Diplomacy, sponsored by the Hurford Foundation. The Initiative aims to help early career scientists understand the global context for their work and thus enable them to work more effectively at international levels.

Course Outline

Week 1
Thursday
Feb. 7, 2019

Topic: Introduction to Science Diplomacy, and Science Diplomacy and Conservation of Cultural Heritage

Guest Speaker: Stefan Simon Director, Global Cultural Heritage Initiatives
Session Leaders: Jesse Ausubel & Mandë Holford
Readings:
Science & Diplomacy Special 10th Anniversary Issue
Science Diplomacy and Future Worlds by E. William Colglazier
Global Research InfraStructures: A Decade of Science Diplomacy by Amy Flatten
Past, Present, and Future of Science Diplomacy in Europe by Jan Marco Muller & Maurizio Bona
Global community responds to Culture in Crisis | Yale West Campus
Websites to Browse:
https://www.aaas.org/programs/center-science-diplomacy/2017
https://ipch.yale.edu/
https://www.artbiomatters.org/
http://www.sciencediplomacy.org
https://www.aaas.org/program/center-science-diplomacy

Week 2
Thursday
Feb. 14, 2018

Topic: Ocean Diplomacy – Exploration, Discovery & Blue Biotechnology

Speakers: Jesse Ausubel, Director of Program for the Human Environment, & Mandë Holford, Associate Professor of Chemistry Hunter College & American Museum of Natural History
Session Leaders: Jesse Ausubel & Mandë Holford
Readings:
Observations, Diplomacy, and The Future of Governance
by Jan-Stefan Fritz
JH Ausubel, DT Crist, and PE Waggoner (eds.). First Census of Marine Life 2010: Highlights of a Decade of Discovery. CoML 2010
SuBastian and the Roboats. JH Ausubel. Pp. 28-31 in Final Report of the 2016 National Ocean Exploration Forum: Beyond the Ships 2020–2025. 2017 (Slightly abridged version published in Sea Technology 58(1):7, January 2017)
National Conference on Marine Environmental DNA. A press release describes the purposes and previews some findings. Final report at https://phe.rockefeller.edu/eDNAmarine2018/
From Mollusks to Medicine: A Venomics Approach for the Discovery and Characterization of Therapeutics from Terebridae Peptide Toxins. Verdes, A., Anand, P., Gorson, J., Jannetti, S., Kelly, P., Leffler, A., Simpson, D., Ramrattan, G., Holford, M. Toxins 2016, 8, 117
Beach to Bench to Bedside: Marine Invertebrate Biochemical Adaptations and Their Applications in Biotechnology and Biomedicine. Verdes, A., Holford, M. In: Kloc M., Kubiak J. (eds), Marine Organisms as Model Systems in Biology and Medicine. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, 2018, vol 65. Springer, Cham
Websites to Browse:
Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean
Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research
International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE)
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/oceans/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/ocean/

Week 3
Thursday
Feb. 21, 2019

Topic: Bridges Across the Park - The American Museum of Natural History (field trip)

Guest Speakers:
Scientists and curators involved in Space Exploration (Jackie Faherty), Biodiversity & Conservation (Eleanore Sterling), and Shaping the science mission of a museum with a global research footprint (Michael Novacek)
Session Leader: Mandë Holford
Readings:
To Infinity and Beyond: Space Diplomacy and the New Space Age
China Uses Space Diplomacy to Extend Its Inroads into Latin America
Proposal from the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Economy in response to notification 2018- 063 relating to the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework1
Biodiversity without Borders: Advancing U.S.-Cuba Cooperation through Environmental Researchby Brian Boom
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/science-technology/science-policy-and-society/science-and-society/science-centres-and-museums/
Websites to Browse:
https://www.amnh.org/
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/science-technology/science-policy-and-society/science-and-society/science-centres-and-museums/

Week 4
Thursday
Feb. 28, 2019

Topic: Peak Human? From Olympic performance enhancement to the international science policy of addiction

Guest Speaker: (TBC) Mary Jeanne Kreek, Rockefeller University Patrick E. And Beatrice M. Haggerty Professor, Senior Attending Physician
Session Leaders: Mandë Holford & Jesse Ausubel
Readings:
Has athletic performance reached its peak? G Berthelot, A Sedeaud, A Marck, J Antero-Jacquemin… - Sports Medicine, 2015
One century of global IQ gains: A formal meta-analysis of the Flynn effect (1909–2013) J Pietschnig, M Voracek - Perspectives on Psychological …, 2015
Chronic Oxycodone Self-administration Altered Reward-related Genes in the Ventral and Dorsal Striatum of C57BL/6J Mice: An RNA-seq Analysis. Zhang Y, Liang YP, Randesi M, Yuferov V, Zhao C, Kreek M J. Neuroscience 2018 Nov 21; 393:333-349.
Re-evaluation of the KMSK scales, rapid dimensional measures of self-exposure to specific drugs: Gender-specific features . Butelman ER, Chen CY, Fry RS, Kimani R, Levran O, Ott J, da Rosa JC, Kreek M J. Drug And Alcohol Dependence 2018 SEP 1; 190:179-187
Websites to Browse:
http://lab.rockefeller.edu/kreek/

Note: NO Science Diplomacy seminar THURSDAY, MARCH 7th. We urge everyone to attend the Scientific Symposium Celebrating the Life of Günter Blobel.

Week 5
Thursday
Mar. 14, 2019

Topic: To Antarctica and Back

Guest Speaker: Melania Guerra, Marine Scientist and Ocean Policy strategist, Nippon Fellow at the Division of Ocean Affairs & Law of the Sea
Session Leaders:  Mandë Holford and Jesse Ausubel
Readings:
Smart Girls and the Sea
Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Oceans
Websites to Browse:
https://www.tedxpuravida.org/expositores/melania-guerra/
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
http://www.un.org/depts/los/

Week 6
Thursday
Mar. 21, 2019

Topic: Sustainable Development

Guest Speaker: Shere Abbott, Director, Environment, Sustainability, and Policy, Syracuse University 
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel
Readings:
Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability
Earth-Observation Summit Endorses Global Data Sharing
THE DAWN OF AN URBAN MILLENNIUM

Week 7
Thursday
Mar. 28, 2019

Topic: Overseeing the Laboratories of the Department of Defense

Guest Speaker: Melissa Flagg, U.S. Army Research Laboratory Northeast Regional Lead
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel
Reading:
The Emerging R&D Landscape: A Tale of Scale and Saturation
Websites to Browse:
https://www.hstoday.us/channels/dod-national-defense/flagg-head-army-research-lab/
https://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm
https://www.arl.army.mil/opencampus/?q=ARLNortheast

Week 8
Thursday-Friday
Apr. 4-5, 2019

Field trip to Washington, D.C.

Planned Visits:
National Institutes of Health – Open science and data policy
NSF Office of International Science and Engineering
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) –  Office of International Affairs (weather & climate, whaling, fisheries…)
National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - Sustainability across the National Academies
Cosmos Club & more…
Reading: TBD
Websites to Browse: TBD
Chaperones: Jesse Ausubel and Mandë Holford

Course Schedule

Dates: Thursdays, Feb 7-March 21, 2019
Time: 3-5pm
Location: CRC206

Previous Sessions

2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

Additional Reading List

The items listed are essential background reading. Two or three additional articles will be distributed each week pertaining to the weekly topics.

1. A tale of two states, Holford, M, Nichols, R
2. CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, The Emerging Global Health Crisis: Nonco mmunicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
   www.cfr.org/NCDs_Task_Force
   Accompanying web interactive
3. The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Innovation and Technology in the World E), by Julia Lane, Kaye Fealing, John Marburger III and Stephanie Shipp (Mar 18, 2011)
4. Scientific Cooperation, State Conflict: The Role of Scientists in Mitigating International Discord, A. L. de Cerreno and A. Keynan, eds, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (866), 1998.
5. New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power.A Royal Society Policy Document 2010, ISBN: 978-0-85403-811-4
6. Science and Two-Armed Diplomats, Rodney Nichols, 1984, Science 226, p123.
7. The Elusive Transformation, Science, Technology and the Evolution of International Politics, Eugene B. Skolnikoff, 1994, Princeton University Press
8. Science and Technology in US International Affairs, Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, reprinted 1993.
9. Arab Development Report, UN, 2002-2003..
10. World Health Statistics – 2012
11. Science and Two-Armed Diplomats, Rodney Nichols, 1984, Science 226, p.123.
12. Chronic Diseases- The Urgent Need For Action, Henry Greenberg, et al, Routledge Handbook in Public Health. Editors Richard Parker and Marni Sommer
13. National Security Strategy that includes health issues:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf
14. National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/National_Strategy_for_Countering_BioThreats.pdf
15. International Health Regulations:
    http://www.who.int/ihr/en
16. Reinventing Phage Therapy, Vincent Fischetti, et al, 2006, Nature 12, P1508
17. Bacteriophage endolysins: A novel anti-infective to control Gram-positive pathogens, Vincent Fischetti, 2010, International Journal of Medical Microbiology, 300 p. 357
18. Sample proposals: Myanmar (microbiology mainly) and North Korea (tuberculosis)
19. Development Science and Science Diplomacy. By Alex Dehgan, E. William Colglazier
20. Arab Development Report, UN, 2002-2003. http://www.arab-hdr.org
21. Sample proposals: Argentina/Bolivia DNA barcoding project; Synchrotron project in Jordan
22. Scientific Cooperation, State Conflict: The Role of Scientists in Mitigating International Discord, A. L. de Cerreno and A. Keynan, eds, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (866), 1998. (Available in the RU Dean’s office)
23. Science and Technology in US International Affairs, Carnegie Commission on Science, technology, and Government, reprinted 1993
    http://www.ccstg.org/pdfs/InternationalAffairs0192.pdf
24. Sample proposals: Dead Sea Net; US NAS cooperation with Iran
25. The Elusive Transformation, Science, Technology and the Evolution of International Politics, Eugene B. Skolnikoff, 1994, Princeton University Press (Available in the Dean’s office)
26. Building a National Science Diplomacy System, Vaughan C. Turekian, Science & Diplomacy, Vol. 1, No. 4 (December 2012)
27. Beyond Reproduction: Women’s health in today’s developing world, Susan Raymond, et al, 2005, International Journal of Epidemiology 34, p.1144
28. Sample proposals: Israel-Palestine Science Organization; Iran-Afghan-Mississippi Delta; Barcoding project on endangered species
29. Science Diplomacy Short Course project proposal form
30. The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Innovation and Technology in the World E) by Julia Lane, Kaye Fealing, John Marburger III and Stephanie Shipp (Mar 18, 2011)
31. Science must be seen to bridge the political divide, Daniel Sarewitz, 2013, Nature 493, p.7.
32. Lifting the burden, The Economist, December, 2012
33. Obesity and cardiovascular disease in developing countries: a growing problem and an economic threat, Susan U. Raymond ,et al, 2006, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care
34. Foreign Assistance in an Aging World, Susan Raymond, 2003, Foreign Affairs p.91
35. Sigma Xi 2012 Assembly of Delegates address by Glenn Schweitzer and William Colglazier on Science Diplomacy: http://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings/annual/index.shtml
36. American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Fellowship: http://fellowships.aaas.org/