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By Davood N. Rahni, Ph.D.
Upon
careful examination of the historical evolution of scientific research
and discovery and its impact in the developed countries, one could
discern key qualitative and semi-quantitative indicators, that when
integrated with the unique cultural values and societal priorities
of a developing country like Iran, they might serve as guiding principles
to further facilitate the scientific endeavors.
From a historical perspective, technology, which is the use of natural
resources and materials for the benefit of mankind, must have first
manifested itself in artistic and esthetic expressions preceding
science or the fundamental systematic method of studying and explaining
natural phenomena . One might conclude the sequence of natural observations
of phenomena, followed by artistic expression, technology, socio-political
and economic exploitation based on technology to precede the ultimate
stage of science, the study of how nature works. In retrospect,
one might appreciate the justification behind the co-existence of
the “colleges of arts and sciences ” put together in
today’s universities as indication of their interconnectedness.
Upon critical probing of how certain countries were able to bring
about economic development for their own constituencies while taking
advantages of other nations hegemonically beyond the renaissance
to the contemporary era, one soon becomes cognizant of the similarity
of approach as that of the pre-historic man, except that the tools,
breadth and depth of such socio-political and economic hegemony
have dramatically advanced.
The task for the developing countries, therefore, is to pro-actively
devise a strategic vision, a comprehensive set of plans and protocols,
and a set of outcome assessment key indicators to set out the ambitious
endeavor of identifying the country’s needs and priorities,
followed by securing indigenous human, financial and physical resources
to meet the needs of the nation. Developing countries in general,
specially a rapidly transforming country such as Iran, with its
vast human, information, materials and non-renewable resources should
recognize the nation’s needs in terms of quality of life for
ALL its citizens. This will immediately charge the vanguard scientific
peers to concentrate on health and preventive human care, education,
food, environment and natural resources conservations, renewable
energy, civil safety and security as the hallmarks of a sustainable,
stable and content society to achieve a high degree of self sufficiency.
Moreover, after the collapse of the former Soviet Union’s
political system, and with the increasing presence of the only worldwide
superpower, it is extremely challenging if not impossible or implausible
for any developing nation to utilize belligerence, that is, military
or ideological means to overcome other nations’ economic or
political arteriole motives. It is no longer baffling to realize
that the underlying theme driving all “civilized” nations
is economic competitiveness. Hence, the generation, acquisition
and integration of information as the main commodity pillar of economic
development have now surpassed the industries of huge steam engines
and gigantic marine ships in the nineteenth century, and the heavy
industries and military hardware such as mining, milling of minerals
like steel or giant tanks and bridges in the twentieth century.
The realities of economic globalization have in effect transformed
and transpired the geopolitical boundaries permeable to trade transactions,
exchange of scientific outcomes and the infusion of inter-cultural
values and personal aspirations. Internet and telecommunication
have indeed revolutionized the ways and means by which we conduct
business transactions, communicate, and generate, receive, truncate,
analyze and disseminate information.
After a country in consultation with its various constituencies
articulates what her priorities are, it is often incumbent upon
the scientific community to propose and carry out scientific research
in support of realizing such priorities. As recently as two decades
ago, there was a distinction among what was classified as basic
research, applied research, technology development and, or technology
transfer; such artificial boundaries engraved in people’s
minds have increasingly lent themselves to a multi-jurisdictional
model, at times up to a dozen distinct inter-disciplines, which
have a unified circle of commonalities. In other words, most if
not all present-day research endeavors are interdisciplinary, where
one can hardly distinguish the line between basic research and applied
research and technology transfer. I have come to fully appreciate
how every research grant applicant should not only define a research
problem and a plan to tackle it with as much interdisciplinary effort
as possible, but s/he must also demonstrate its relevance to society
and how its outcome may favorably impact the individual taxpaying
citizen’s daily life. In other words, every single grant application
not only has to demonstrate how their research will further advance
science and technology, but they must also exhibit measurably its
relevance to the daily welfare of each citizen in the society. Retroactively,
however, this requirement was not necessarily institutionalized
nearly fifteen years ago, when more than 2/3 of the country’s
R&D budget was defense related. If one were obliged to cite
the most active areas of scientific endeavors in the developed countries
as typified by the US today, topics in health care, biotechnology
and genetic engineering, advanced materials and composites, environment,
natural resources, information and telecommunications, and space
explorations would immediately come to mind. The government annual
budget allocation for s cientific R&D in the developed counties
is on the order of ~0.5%, due in part to the substantially more
active role private and non-profit corporations play in terms of
supporting research. In contrast, the developing counties as typified
by post-World War II Japan, have taken a much more assertive and
visionary approach of an initial phase of public funds investment
of up to 3%, followed by a gradual decrease when the private sector
will cover the discrepancy.
Scientific scholarly endeavors do require not only a national agenda
but also more importantly, a cadre of manifestly qualified scientists
and technologists and an effective, fiscally responsible management
team to bring it to fruition. This in turn requires training and
developing human minds; it also necessitates providing a comfortable,
peaceful and secure socioeconomic and political ambience in which
the compatriots in general, but more significantly the scientific
corp. could professionally and personally grow, prosper and be tangibly
recognized, otherwise I am afraid the pace of brain drain from the
developing countries to immigrate to the developed countries will
unfortunately accelerate in the coming decades. In fact, if one
asks a developing country to identify her greatest national asset,
she should proudly and responsibly single out its skilled and intellectual
human resources as its primary resource and devise legitimate ways
and means of retaining them.
In the US, most scientific societies, i.e. professional, mostly
non-governmental organizations or academies each devoted to the
promotion of a specific scientific discipline and those members
who practice that discipline trace their origins back to the late
nineteenth century. Having served as the Chair of the American Chemical
Society (ACS) in New York where the national ACS with a current
membership of 165,000 and annual gross revenue of nearly 500 million
dollars, was originally conceived 125 years ago, I am appreciably
cognizant of how the ACS impacts the advancement of the chemical
sciences and the chemical professionals not only in the US but also
worldwide. There are no less than one hundred other professional
organizations in the US, each devoted to the promotion of a specific
scientific discipline with common goals. In fact, there are interdisciplinary
coalitions established among such scientific organizations/academies
for certain common goals, spanning from influencing government priorities
and policies on research and development, to securing grants from
government and private sectors for their respective disciplines
and, or constituencies.
Then, under government mandates, there are national academies, namely
the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering
and the National Institute of Medicine, which set the government
scientific agenda upon continuous consultations with the professional
scientific societies. One might finally mention the existence of
science committees and subcommittees set up at each of three branches
of government that provide advice, counsel, and expertise, and draft,
implement, interpret, and assess laws and policies. Nonetheless
at first glance, one might hastily conclude that this is a rather
redundant and convoluted infra-structure of various institutions
which might indeed be in part true; yet having closely monitored
and worked in the system, I dare say the system does work rather
efficiently, since there are clear checks and balances and benchmarks
as to the realm of the responsibilities of one organ in relation
to the others.
One point cannot be sufficiently stressed, namely, the vital importance
of the independence in approach by these scientific organizations
so as to avoid becoming too closely aligned with government policy
and especially falling sway to political pressures, otherwise they
may loose their credibility and objectivity.
Although the developing countries can benefit immensely from emulating
the infrastructure for the advancement of sciences in the developed
countries, they should be cautious not to repeat the same technological
errors committed by the developed countries, while adapting an imported
approach to their own unique cultural norms and societal needs.
For instance, the exhaustion and deterioration of natural resources
especially water and air should be avoided by initiating green and
environmentally benign sciences and technologies in the country.
In fact, many believe the shortage of fresh water supplies will
become one of the most intense sources of conflict among nations
in the 21st century. Figuratively speaking, one does not have to
recreate the wheel from the outset, but rather learn from others’
shortcomings. This is where the notion of sustainable development
will impact every single disc
Here
are a series of recommendations in relation to the mission, vision
and function of a model scientific society in a developing country
as exemplified by Iran:
1.
A scientific society should remain focused on its vision and mission
in the context of the national agenda, its individual and corporate
member interests, and the broader public’s quality of life
objectives.
2. It should remain independent of the government’s official
line or partisan manifesto, recognizing that as an independent intellectual
society, it does and should in fact interact efficiently and cordially
with government organs, and influence and provide counsel to the
government in shaping, carrying out and assessing the national scientific
agenda.
3. Its annual budget should be a combination of government grants,
private sector sponsorship, donation from endowments and proceeds
from own reserves, product sale revenues including a consultancy
database of its members, membership fees, journal subscriptions
and meeting registrations.
4. It should initiate and sustain transparent bilateral, trans-lateral
and inter-lateral exchanges of scientific information and education
and expertise with sister societies not only inside the country,
but more importantly, with sister societies in other developing
and developed countries.
5. A viable scientific society should pro-actively project and ensure
the balance of human power and the needs of the society for a specific
discipline or for a specific line of scholarly pursuit.
6. A credible scientific society should strive to perpetually assess
its practices, priorities and policies so as to avoid becoming obsolete
for achieving its mission and as anticipated by its constituencies
at any juncture.
7. A respectable society will in concert with other internal sister
institutions devise fluid and smooth processes by which national
priority shifts can be accommodated without detrimental destruction
to the entire scientific infrastructures.
8. It should instill a positive sense of proprietorship and/or guardianship
of the scientific discipline among its members and a climate of
camaraderie, thereby facilitating the fulfillment of financial,
material and spiritual expectations of its members.
9. It should clearly articulate and promote the measurable role
the discipline plays in regard to the advancement of the public
quality of life.
10. A reputable scientific society will strive to clearly define
the balance among basic and applied research, and development and
technology transfer in terms of the securing fiscal and human resources
needs and in the context of the national agenda.
11. Recognizing the presence of nearly three million expatriates
abroad, a progressive scientific society will facilitate the mutually
beneficial and remunerated legitimate exchange of scientific information
between such vast intellectual resource outside the country on the
one hand, and their peers inside the country, on the other.
12. And last but not least, the broad membership of a scientific
society should accept their utmost responsibilities in relation
to the society at-large and its citizens—to ensure the comprehensive
welfare and aspirations of the all human resources in the nation,
and the conservation of its natural resources, are indeed safeguarded.
Acknowledgment:
Intellectually stimulated input by Dr. Bradley (Ali) Hernlem is
appreciated.
About the Author:
Professor D. N. Rahni is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Pace
University,New York. In addition, he serves as an adjunct professor
in both the LL.M. Environmental Law program at the Pace University
School of Law, and the Department of Dermatology at the New York
Medical College. He was Director of the Graduate Program leading
to a Master of Science in Environmental Science at Pace University
from 1996-1999. He was selected the 1996 Distinguished Scientist
by the American Chemical Society’s Westchester Section. A
recipient of 1997-98 Kenan Award for teaching Excellence, Davood
Rahni has organized and chaired numerous workshops and symposia. |
