Monday, April 27, 2009

Pres. Obama addresses the National Academy of Sciences

President Barack Obama spoke to members of the National Academy of Sciences this morning during the Academy’s 146th annual meeting, announcing historic investments in science. You can read the transcript of his speech here. Audio recording is on the NAS Web site, along with video recording and photos.

Early in his speech, Pres. Obama targeted the swine flu outbreak, saying: "our capacity to deal with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our scientific and medical community. And this is one more example of why we cannot allow our nation to fall behind."

The President then made this commitment: "I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than three percent of our GDP to research and development. We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the Space Race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and science. This represents the largest commitment to scientific research and innovation in American history."

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