Science Matters

March 2, 2016

Why should science matter to our presidential candidates? As you’ll see in the accompanying video, Northern Illinois University students and faculty have strong and varied opinions.

“It’s how we make new discoveries.”

“It’s one of our remaining national strengths.”

“Science is responsible for identifying the most pressing environmental issues of our time.”

Those are just three of 18 responses by NIU participants in the video initiative spearheaded by The Science Coalition, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to sustaining strong federal funding of basic scientific research.

During this presidential primary season, The Science Coalition and its 64 member universities, including NIU, are calling attention to the need to maintain America’s leadership in scientific discovery and innovation.

The video campaign responses from students, faculty and scientists across the country reflect the importance of science to our modern society, the varied challenges facing our nation and the breadth of research being conducted at U.S. universities.

Other Science Coalition efforts aimed at increasing the awareness of the importance of science include an op-ed published this week in STAT news. The article is co-authored by Jerry Blazey, interim vice president of NIU Research and Innovation Partnerships, and the research vice presidents at Boston University, Florida State University and Stony Brook University.

Tom Parisi, NIU Newsroom

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