New York Day 2 and goodbye!

Got a bit behind and so am only writing Friday up tonight-  Sunday. Sorry about that, I know you’ve been hanging on the edge of your seats - cough cough.

I started off meeting Corey Powell, executive editor of one of the big popular science magazines, Discover. We started off talking about this idea of a debate about Science for the 2008 Presidential candidates. We both felt (perhaps for slightly different reasons) that this was not necessarily a good idea, because it could seem elitist and because it “ghettoised” science as something that needs special attention and isn’t part of everyday issues. We discussed top-down/bottom-up approaches to political engagement in science (and scientific engagement in politics, I suppose) and felt that it was more a question of science engaging with the public policy process. But whichever way it was, a popular science magazine was somewhere where people went to get away from policy debates, and be entertained and interested, so this issue was not a big thing for them editorially.

I asked where they got their ideas for stories. It was from a variety of sources: press release services such as EurekAlert, agencies such as Associated Press, Science/Nature, or just ideas coming from the writers through the conferences they attend, people they meet, areas they cover. Or they “reverse engineer” stories to show the science angle of the big stories of the day.

The weather was absolutely foul that day, so I went back to the hotel between meetings to change. And got even more soaked on my way to the next meeting, which was at the Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy at Columbia University. What a great hour or so I spent there. It’s so stimulating being around creative, intelligent people who are interested in what you have to say as well. I started with the director, Albert Bressand, who happens to be an advisor to the European Energy Commissioner. Given that theirs is very much a public policy centre, we talked about the role of technology in addressing energy and environment concerns within a policy framework. They mentioned an interesting study by McKinsey about how savings can be made with existing technologies (and apparently it raises how Europe is 15 years ahead of the US in this area. They were very interested in the lead markets initiative as it could apply to energy efficient buildings. The more “hands-on” type of government we have in Europe helps, because through the use of taxes etc it can help people make the financial case much more immediate. However they did see that in the US, there was alot of value in using cities as test beds, and they had done a study on CHP (combined heat and power) in New York, and were also looking at micro-grids and solar. They also do some really interesting work on marine transportation and energy use, could be worth investigating.

While there, I had a phone conversation with the Executive Director of the New York Energy Forum, and they were very keen to work with us to identify possible speakers, or explore other possibilities for co-operation.

Finally I talked with one of the Center’s researchers, Steve Hammer, who had done his PhD at the LSE and looked particularly at urban issues for renewables, particularly in London and NY. They were looking at what was going on in other cities, such as Paris and Shanghai. They are trying to develop a model to identify building-by-building energy use in New York, which could be used to make decisions about eg where to place micro-grids, and also get the real data out of the utility comapnies. They were also looking at attitudes. It would be interesting to see if there is some way to work with the New York side on this from a London and wider European urban centre persepctive - I need to see what can be done, perhaps in the context of the C40 process, which is a UK initiative or the urban climate change research process- but these are great people doing fascinating work. One area that is really surprising is the role of building code enforcement in optimising energy use - apparently proper enforcement of building codes could reduce emissions by 20-30%. It all feeds into the issue I have been getting into, the design of a building to influence positively what goes on in the building.

So, that was it! After that meeting, it was back to the hotel and then today, back to Philadelphia for the closing seminar. I have to give my computer back tomorrow or the next day, so I guess this will be my last post from the US. There may be some follow-up when I get back, so check-in occasionally! Thanks for the comments that have been left and the visits you have made. Keeping this blog has really helped me through the whole fellowship process - it has focused my mind before, during and particularly after meetings and really helped me to filter the information I received and make sense of it. I hope that you’ve found it a little interesting as well!

New York Day 1

Well, I’m in my last city of the trip, and the best has been saved for last - The Big Apple! I arrived yesterday by train from Philadelphia. Checked into the hotel (E44th and 1st) in the early afternoon and went out to get some chores done in the afternoon including laundry (there goes Sally to put another load on…!)

Today I headed over to Hoboken on the PATH (hadn’t been on that before) to meet John Horgan of the Centre for Science Writing at the Stevens Institute of Technology. It was a very informal meeting - we chatted in his office for a while and then went out for lunch with several of his colleagues. Very interesting though. John is one of the science journalists who came at it through the journalism side, not the science side. And he makes it a thing to be critical and questioning, even (especially?) of mainstream science, not allowing things to be taken for granted. A great approach, and a healthy one I think. But this is at a time when science is under attack from several sides and there is a feeling of circling the wagons. He writes a lot about the interface of religion and science, a really interesting subject and one at the forefront of my mind after reading the Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre (recommended reading by the way!) and then watching Expelled. He also gave me some other really interesting contacts in the science communication world.

Over lunch discussion was a bit more general, covering the GMO issue in Europe, public attitudes to nanotech and of course the elections - big night last night.

I was supposed to meet a schoolfriend this afternoon, but she got stuck at work so we are meeting tomorrow. Tonight is Korean food with Chak Hee!! I’m very excited! 

Back in Philadelphia for a day

For the first time in this whole trip, I go back to somewhere! I arrived in Philly late last night and checked back into my beloved (haha) Doubletree Hotel. I forced myself to go to bed as early as I could, because of the 3 hour time difference from San Francisco, but first sorted out my bags so I only have to take one to New York - we’re really in the end phase now!

The reason I was back in Philly was today’s meeting at Wyeth, a pharmaceuticals and consumer health company. We started by being met by Anne from the CEO’s office, who took us around the whole day. After a cup of tea in their cafe, we went on a tour of their site. It has a huge fitness centre with three studios for classes (membership $10-20 per month!) and occupational health centre, cafeterias, 3 miles of walking trails across the campus, banking, dry-cleaning and post office facilities… Pretty amazing!

After that we had lunch with some of the executives. The CEO was supposed to have been there, but couldn’t make it then (we met him later). But we had an interesting discussion with the President of the Pharmaceuticals division and some of his colleagues. We talked about the elements behind recent political attacks on pharmaceutical companies. It’s a tricky one, because they are companies after all, not charities, and they have to finance their drug discovery. Nonetheless there is a recognition that they could have done more to explain their business model and the process of drug discovery (88-92% failure of potential drug discoveries) that go into making their prices.

After lunch we went to the Discovery division and found about in particular about their work on uterine fibroids and osteoporosis. Then went to their High Throughput Screening Facility, which was an amazing piece of computer and manufacturing engineering if nothing else! Finally the three of us (Sam, Iyad and me) broke up and spoke to people specific to our interests. I talked to two guys from the government affairs side and we focused on the Innovative Medicines Initiative. They were both convinced that it was a step in the right direction, and an important political signal in itself, but didn’t feel that it was going to directly result in drug discoveries - to do that there needs to be competitive research, company A working with university B, not broad industry-wide partnerships because companies need exclusivity. It made me wonder whether FP8 couldn’t include some kind of “matchmaking” element. Rather than investing large amounts in individual projects, with all the IP entanglements and so on, use the money to facilitate the development of industry/academia partnerships. They also said that they couldn’t use Marie Curie as much as they would like because of visa problems. So the visa issue is clearly affecting things across the board, including from Western Europe. It’s a ticking timebomb for the US I reckon. 

So all in all a day worth coming  back to Philadelphia for. What I particularly liked was that instead of showing us all their corporate social responsibility and citizenship activities, they focussed on their core business. I have to say I wish some of the other big companies we saw had done the same.

Tomorrow I’m off to my last city of the trip, which is…NEW YORK! So I’m a happy lady!!!

Northern California Days 1 & 2

Arrived in San Francisco yesterday. A great city and one I hope to come back to with a bit more time on my hands! I’ve met some really interesting people here too, so all-in-all, worth coming!

Yesterday I met the Chief Communications Officer of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was set up by the state to provide funds for research that uses stem cells. The first round of grants focused on human embryonic stem cells, but later rounds were broader. They also fund the building of physical facilities, because scientists can’t use federal equipment - he said that at Harvard equipment was tagged with different colours to let them know what they could and couldn’t use! The centre is funded from a bond system that was approved by the electorate by 59%. When I asked why people were in favour, the view was it was 70% because they saw a value for the future and 30% to give a bloody nose to the federal government! Their aim is to have one therapy developed by the centre accepted by the end of the 10 year cycle and 3 more ready for clinical trials. While their grants are predominantly to universities at the moment, it is envisaged that in the future they will be more and more to industry.

In terms of the human embryonic stem cells they use, they are all derived from supernumerary IVF embryos, like we do at European level. There are very strong ethical standards on what can be used, but he did mention that there are fewer supernumerary embryos here and more multiple births, because there is such a pressure to produce children in IVF.

On the public information side, they are going to work with the grant recipients on getting information out there and will develop the pedagogic/communication side of their website. They’re also forming a partnership with the Exploratorium, the SF science museum, to develop their stem cell information.

So really interesting talking to him and seeing the take they have on this sensitive issue.

Today I hopped on the CalTrain down to Stanford university. Because I am an idiot, i not only left my phone at the hotel, but the very detailed instructions on how to get to my meetings, so thank goodness for a) reading through things the night before and b) a photographic memory! It got me to the meeting there, which was with a senior member of Stanford’s office of technology licensing, just about the best in the country. Astonishingly, practically the first thing he said was that it’s a mistake for people in those jobs in universities to put emphasis on making money. The secret of success is to look at it as a way of getting inventions to the public through proper management of the ownership of inventions. But a pure money focus is counter-productive. He had resisted suggestions to move their centre into the general university management structure because it was not something that would work with a performance system based on income. I think that’s a main point for us in Europe to remember when dealing with this and also many of the places here - that’s the attitude that’s going to avoid the backlash that is brewing.

There are a lot of parallels between this work and the science communication side. You need to get the trust of the scientists, so that they come to you in good time with the appropriate information, and you need to be able to demonstrate to them then it is in their interests, maybe in terms of consulting opportunities or attracting research sponsorship.

A lot of the income that is generated (and they are very successful, for all their broader focus) goes back into the university, not just to the inventors themselves but to their departments and schools. This is another part of the model that could translate into the European situation. The other element of success that was emphasised was patience - if you look at the successful tech transfer offices in the US, they’re all older than 20 eyars. The bulk of money being made now is off inventions from the 1970s.

It was like Tech Transfer 101, and absolutely fascinating. Stanford was an astonishing place - created in 1891 as a tribute to the teenage son of Mr and Mrs Stanford, who died, so they decided to use their fortune to help other people’s children. The university is a small town, with a shuttle bus, a train station, shopping centres, housing… They gave me a little factbook and I found something very interesting in there as part of my women in science interest. For 2007 the proportion of men and women were:

Undergrad level: 49% men, 51% women

Graduate level: 64% men, 36% women

Faculty: 76% men, 24% women

It does beg the question, where are the role models for the young women students? and if you look at the race figures the pattern is similar. Will things ever change?

From Stanford it was the CalTrain and then underground to get to Berkeley. Another lovely campus, though much smaller scale. There I met the Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research, Bob Price. Great discussion with him, firstly on the reasons why they won the BP energy centre, their productive collaborations with industry, and the contradictory attitudes to science within US society about science.

He totally agreed with Jeff Nesbitt at the NSF (see Washington Day 2) that industry were strong supporters of basic science because they valued its input to innovation and the workforce development role of universities.

Once again constraints for the US system were the “decrepit” state of the public school system, coupled with the problems that were growing in attracting and retaining foreign talent.

When I asked about the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research his first point was that the architecture of the new buildings is planned to encourage interdisciplinary work. Once again this issue of architecture as part of policy comes up - I really think there’s something super important to look at here! Do decision-makers, “leaders” if you like, really take that into account? They obviously did at Starbucks, and Oak Ridge, but I can think of other places where the architecture wasn’t so conducive to what was supposed to be going on in the building.

Oof, sorry, marathon entry! But several great meetings and I wanted to make sure I did them justice!

Seattle Day 3

We  had a brilliant day yesterday. Now, if you say Seattle, I bet two things come to mind. Firstly, Microsoft (and we went there on Friday). Secondly, Starbucks. And that’s where we went yesterday.

You arrive at the office and it all seems normal - up in the lift to the reception, people coming in and out of a door. But when you go through that door, it’s like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! There are big open spaces with sofas, coffee kitchens on every corner, loads of conference rooms, people everywhere. Their building is the biggest office space in Seattle and is IMMENSE. There’s a huge coffee roasting machine on one floor, which is the space that everyone comes together in. We got something of a tour, including past the big placard with the numbers of Starbucks in every country - 0 in Belgium! almost 700 in the UK. We also saw their gym and down to the entertainment division. Amazing.

When we went to the conference room, we started with a coffee tasting, apparently that’s a thing that happens quite a lot. One of the people we were talking to had been with the company since it had 40 employees - it now has over 100,000! They’re all called “partners”, not employees. We had a very interesting discussion about how the company dealt with the vast array of people they have, and talked about the corporate culture there. They have 6 guiding principles, the sixth of which is profitability. Diversity is second.

You really left with a feeling that this is a nice company to work for (however you might feel about their world-dominance and their responsibility for making us all drink Latte!). They really seem to value the individual’s contribution to making the company. I guess my concern would be, how long would that culture remain if the company was in other hands than Howard Schulz and the people he has brought through the company? Something they think about too. I suppose you would have to hope that the culture is part of what makes Starbucks a success.

After that we went to the Puget Sound Regional Council, where there was a roundtable organised on diversity issues in the Greater Seattle area. We had been expecting 5-10 participants. 40 plus turned up!!! Seattle clearly has a lot more diversity going on than it might seem on the surface. Our meeting had Jewish, Filipino, Nigerian, Tanzanian, Mexican, African American, Peruvian, Vietnamese and I can’t think what else representatives. Once again, the discussion came down to education. Whatever this country has going for it, and it’s a lot, it all seems to come down to education. It does make one wonder what it will be like in 30 years, if Americans aren’t equipped for the kind of jobs that are around and they’re not letting enough foreigners in to do them. It does really seem like something that needs to get sorted out, pretty drastically!

I’m now in San Francisco, with a busy couple of days before heading out to the country. Should be fun!

Seattle Day 2

Well, isn’t Seattle great! We had great weather over the weekend, so I made the most of it, visiting a schoolfriend I haven’t seen for 21 years on Saturday and wandering around the city centre yesterday, including going down to Pike Place market.

We had a later start than usual today (thank goodness!) so convened at 11am to go to the University of Washington. It was good timing, as my phone went haywire over the weekend and so I had to take it in to Verizon this morning (needless to say they did a hard reset on it. Really, IT seems a no-brainer: if it isn’t working, turn it off and start it again. If that doesn’t work start it all over again from scratch.)

We had fun at UW - it was a discussion on diversity, which is the theme of our visit. they had various people from across the university’s different programmes. Needless to say, we had a lively session with them, covering the high school dropout rate, University career services, the appointment of supreme court judges and the stratification of American society. After that we went to the Northwest African American Museum. Did you know that Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones are/were from Seattle?! and on the pioneers that came west was an african american called George Washington Bush!! The museum has been developed in a historically African American museum and above the museum there is rental housing for low-income families. They also have a geneaology centre, supported by the Mormons, who apparently provide immense support to geneaology across American society. Who knew…

Off out for dinner in a bit and then hopefully going to see a film.

Denver Day 2/Seattle Day 1

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but after alot of driving in Colorado, a delayed flight, a late arrival and a time zone change, I was too pooped!

My second day in Denver was as interesting as the first. I had a later appointment, so was able to have breakfast and check out before driving to Boulder. I got there ages before time, which was useful as I got TOTALLY lost. After driving around the whole place, with little GPS lady being no bloody use to me whatsoever, I finally found a garage where the guy not only gave me directions, but pointed me in the direction of a post office to send another great package of stuff back to Philadelphia. How I will get this all home I do not know! Then at 12.15 or thereabouts I went to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre. They’re a fairly small research centre, focussed on the cryosphere - basically anywhere it’s cold. I talked to their communications people and one of their scientists, dealing with sea ice, which is of course a huge issue and has led to alot of attention for them. It was really stimulating then and the day before to talk so much science (and fairly gratifying from my perspective that I seemed to be able to hold my own in these conversations!)

Then the  drive back down the ghost road - a tollway from Boulder to Denver that was just a delight to drive on - almost empty even at rush hour. I suppose people are put off by the tolls, but it suited me!  Before leaving Boulder I drove up the side of the mountains, because this is really the point where the Rockies meet the Great Plains. Stunning views, to which I’m sure the photos will do scant justice.

So then it was back to the airport, giving back the rental car (I’m not going into the trauma of refilling it at the petrol station as the memories might send me into some kind of spasm…) and checking in. As I sat having something to eat I realised that I hadn’t done one thing I meant to at the post office which was post my latest OU assignment. Luckily there was a post office at the airport. Unluckily I didn’t have the address with me (though I was sure I had put it in my bag - later transpired that I had, but one of the bags I checked in…). So that’s another day it will be late…

Arrived late (after 11) in Seattle so I just unpacked and went to bed. We had an early start today to head out to Microsoft. And what an interesting day we had. We had talks on some of the education work they are doing including the Innovative Schools Project. We heard about the Worldwide Telescope, super cool as I am just doing the cosmology section of my course. They told us about some of the partnerships they are creating around the world to improve access to technology. Of course, with a group as diverse as ours, there was a lot of talk about the digital divide and how technology is used or abused by governments and/or corporations to improve the lot of its people or keep them in their boxes. The final 2 sessions were particularly interesting from my point of view. Firstly the work of Microsoft Research. What I take away from that is the freedom that they give their researchers to work independently of product development - they are just there to do the best possible basic computer science. Physically they are in a different building. They have a tech transfer team to see what they can “spin out”. It’s a very good atmosphere to stimulate creative thinking. The final session was all about the role of technology in our future world and how that needs to be managed by governments. The guy giving it started off by mentioning a foresight conference he attended at IPTS in Seville (one of our internal research institutes for non-Commission people) so I was very happy! It was a great discussion, because it highlighted on the new paradigm that is emerging and the new skills and education that will have to go along with that if countries are to take advantage. Best of all, we got half an hour in the company shop at the end, so I have Windows Ultimate Vista to upload to my Mac (via Boot Camp) so I will be able to run Windows and OSX on the same computer! And it cost me $45!!! A LOT less than buying a new computer! Let’s hope it works OK when I get home.

So, back at the hotel now and off out with some friends of Barman Phil’s for a few drinks and some live music. Seattle is great, reminds me a bit of Sydney actually. I’m meeting a girl I went to school with for lunch tomorrow, so Seattle will be a social whirl!

Denver Day 1

Had a fabulous day today at the National Renewable Energy Lab. It had been one of my top must-sees, but we were having real trouble getting the entree. But it happened in the end and the persistence was justified, as it was really interesting. I started by meeting Carol from the Public Affairs side, who gave me some background about the lab and showed me round some of the buildings. They are all very energy efficient, holding the platinum status under the US accreditation system for buildings. [Spooky aside: I was supposed to have been met by Sarah Barba, but she was ill today with an allergic flare-up. And I dreamt last night that I had to cancel today's meeting because I had a horrible rash!] 

I started the day with a discussion on education. The lab do quite a bit of outreach, encouraging elementary school kids (4th graders) to develop their reading skills through science, which is a nice double whammy. They also do quite a few initiatives to encourage girls to get interested in science, with a meeting for middle school girls where they can attend lectures by women scientists on things like ‘why Barbie is anatomically impossible’!! And while they’re doing that, their parents are talking to professionals about how to get and keep their daughters interested in science. All very interesting. Then I met someone working on the international side. NREL do a lot of work with USAID and the UN Environment Programme to help developing countries plan their energy development, making the most of their renewable potential. Then I had a discussion with their press guy, before he showed me round their photovoltaics lab. Not surprisingly they have had an explosion of interest from the media recently. We discussed some of the problems that are common to press work, like measuring impact and monitoring audiovisual. After a nice lunch, I met someone from public affairs, who took me round their bio-energy lab, where they are working on producing bio-fuels from agricultural waste, switchgrass or woody materials - what are known in Europe as second-generation biofuels, and where we really need the developments if the biofuels thing is going to work.

Then the final treat of the day was the visit to the wind site, about 20 minutes drive from the main lab. There I was given a very interesting presentation on the challenges and potential of wind power and the state of its use in the US (did you know they have NO off-shore wind-power at the moment!). Then we went to see some of what they are doing. We started in the area for testing the turbines. The machine they have there produces 1 million pound feet of torque! Eat that, Clarkson!!! We then went to the facility for testing wind turbine blades. Basically they put pressure on them, bounce them up and down and give them a hard time to see when they break. When they built the facility they could fit the blades in it and move them up and down (flap) and side to side (edge). Now the blades are so large they stick out the end of the facility and they can only test them in one direction.  Just shows how things are progressing.

Finally we went out to the wind to hydrogen research. Funnily enough, in all the science I had chucked at me today, the only time I got really lost was when they started talking about the engine!  Shows I’m not a car owner!

So, all in all a fantastic day. Thanks to NREL for letting me visit! There’s nothing like seeing things first-hand.

Miami/Grand Canyon/ Dallas

So, there’s been a few days of radio silence as I was at the Grand Canyon with no internet access. My last day at Miami was at the University. I was supposed to see one of the VPs, but he didn’t arrive, so I talked to the Communications people. I think the most interesting outcome for me was that this communication thing is pretty much the same wherever it is you are doing it - the challenges are the same, what works is the same. That’s a great eye-opener, because it means that if I want, I have a whole range of new options in front of me outside the public sphere. Don’t worry Reijo, I’m still coming to London in June!!!

Then we went to the Grand Canyon. What goes to the Grand Canyon stays at the Grand Canyon (!) but we had a great time and it was fantastic to reconnect with everyone in a relaxed atmosphere. Plus I had a lovely birthday there what with the Fellows spoiling me, plus all the messages I got from you all back home.

But it’s all over too soon and now we’re back in the saddle. I spent the day today in Dallas at the corporate headquarters of ExxonMobil, with Deema, Sam and Omar. We had a full day of discussions, and there was a lot of interest in there. While there were people talking to us about their education initiatives and corporate citizenship actions, there was a quite refreshing acceptance of the fact that they’re a corporation and they do things, including their more philanthropic activities, for a business reason, not for the “joy of giving”. But they are nonetheless doing some interesting things. For example, they require all their employees in Africa to take malaria tablets and work with them to cut malaria among their workforce and so among the local community. They are doing some interesting things in the maths and science education field in the US. All the usual problems that regular readers will be familiar with came up, including the issue that most initiatives dealing with this are local. So they are involved with a National Science and Maths Initiative. Must find out more about that. They are doing a really interesting thing - encouraging their retiring employees who have science and maths experience to retrain as teachers. They support them through teachers training and so on. A really interesting idea!

We had a presentation of their energy outlook to 2030. I will try to find a copy to send to some of you. They said they are doing work on on-board hydrogen production, so, filling a car with petrol which is converted into hydrogen for a fuel cell to run the car, rather than an internal combustion engine. Not something I’d heard about before - are we doing any of this?

Lunch was a reminder of how the best part of this programme is the other fellows. We were talking US politics and our host asked Deema what the view was in Jordan about the US troops in Iraq. Clearly such an emotional issue for her, and she gave her view so clearly and calmly, without ducking away from the issues, like the rejection in the Middle East of all reasons given for the Iraq invasion and the impact it has had on the lives of not only millions of Iraqis, but the whole region. I’m not taking a position, just saying that I love being able to have these conversations in a spirit of openness and dialogue. At the end of the day, that’s been the most valuable thing.

After that I hopped on a flight to Denver, picked up another hire car and am now at a hotel near the airport, getting ready to drive to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory tomorrow. Looking forward to that!

Florida Days 1 and 2

Florida started EEEEARLY, getting off the red-eye from Las Vegas at 7am. I picked up a rental car at Fort Lauderdale - got a PT Cruiser because there were no compacts left. It was a much nicer drive than I thought. I drove to the hotel in Boca Raton, checked in and crashed out for a couple of hours. When I woke up I changed and headed out to my first meetings of the day, which were at Scripps Florida, an independent research institute that focuses on biomedical research. Florida, like North Carolina, has been working on becoming a global destination for biotechnology, as part of its economic development goals and the creation of quality jobs (traditionally jobs here have been tourism, services and agriculture, all of which tend to be low-skill, low-pay jobs.) They have some really interesting education and outreach programmes and I was also able to talk to their business development guy. What they are doing differently in Scripps Florida is moving beyond basic research into translational research, which should help companies develop the discovery as they come in later in the process. They got a lot of financial support from Florida and the County to set up the institute, but it seems that most of their operating budget comes from NIH grants won on the basis of excellence. After the meeting, the education VP showed me round some of the labs. LIke the school in St Louis, there is a strong element of architecture in making the centre work - the labs are long and open, and bring together various different disciplines, so there is much more interaction amongst the scientists. Are there any courses on architecture to promote exchange ideas, or theses on how this affects co-operation?

After that meeting I joined Omar and Christian for dinner with Myles Martel about leadership and communication. It  was such an interesting session, because it codified and ordered things that I have often instinctively felt about how to do this job. For example, when we have those discussions about whether the Commissioner should do a press conference. Myles said that leaders should persuade, not inform, to move their target audience towards their goal. So if you’re just telling people about something, then someone less “leaderlike” can do it. The Commissioner should come on board to convinve people about something. And if you think about it, the most successful communication experiences we have had have been the ones where there was persuasion to be done.

An early-ish start this morning, though nothing like yesterday! Omar and I drove to Miami and he dropped me at Chuck Cobb’s office. Ambassador Cobb is an Eisenhower trustee and was a political appointee ambassador in Rejkjavik. He met all of us that came to Miami and offered some interesting ideas about people I should talk to. We talked a bit about the challenges of science education, and mused about how the US can address them - there’s a strong state v federal thing here, as you no doubt know.

After a truly yummy Cuban lunch from a wee caff, my only regret being I had to wolf it done to get to the next meeting, I headed over to the University’s Medical School. I had a brief meeting with the VP for Special Programs, then headed over to meet the Provost for  Research, Richard Bookman. What a great guy and what a great meeting. I had suggested a few things to talk about -research ethics/integrity and the involvement of private money in research. These are obviously big issues for all universities and theirs is no exception. The Association of American Medical Colleges did a symposium on the science behind influence, which basically found pretty unequivocally that doctors are influenced (one way or another) by gifts, favours and reciprocal relationships (in their words). The question could therefore be less one of eliminating potential conflicts of interest - which is nigh on impossible - and more one of declaring and managing such issues. He is also leading a discussion within the university (and beyond) about open innovation, building on the work of Larry Lessig  (I haven’t been able to watch the video on the link because of the bandwidth, but Dr Bookman told me it was marvellous!). What this is looking at is new forms of managing intellectual property, opening up knowledge as far as possible and only locking it in where necessary. There are also moves afoot to link up IP within universities, thereby opening existing ideas to reinterpretation and reworking which might lead to renewed innovation. All totally fascinating. I don’t feel I’ve done it justice here, to be honest, but I hope you get at least a flavour.

Talking of flavour…I’m hungry and not in an area with a lot of life. Hope that there’s some food somewhere in the hotel! I’m managing to get quite a bit of Open University work done today, which is not before time! But at least TMA 08 is done.