Dear Bob,
You have a remarkable and unique history of contributions to science, starting as an academic researcher and then continuing as an academic leader, an entrepreneur, the President of a major science Foundation and an initiator of multiple large-scale collaborative initiatives. Can you tell us about the different roles you have played in science and science policy?
I was interested in science from an early age after discovering I had a gift for mathematics and that I loved to understand how things work. This led me to study engineering and physics. At the time, finding alternative sources of energy was a national priority and I started to work on nuclear fission energy and on nuclear fusion, the energy source of the stars. In addition to leading a productive research program, I became interested in the broader significance of science and its role in solving societal needs. In a 1986 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times (Conn, LA Times 1986), I pointed out that nuclear fusion was a problem of such scope and complexity that a wide international collaboration was needed, and that working together could improve relations among nations.
As I moved from graduate student at Caltech into academic life as a professor, first at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and finally at UC San Diego, I discovered a talent for leadership. I had founded or co-founded two research institutes, one at Wisconsin and one at UCLA, that brought faculty and students together to make major discoveries and advances. This is not easy because professors are notoriously protective of their ideas and their domains. Yet we succeeded at both Wisconsin and UCLA.
In 1994 I become Dean of the School of Engineering at UCSD, which my tenure was named the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School and rose into the rankings of the top ten engineering schools in the country. Also during this period, I led the campus effort to win and establish the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), a joint institute of UC San Diego and UC Irvine. I left academia in 2002 to work as a venture capitalist.
In 2009 I became president of the Kavli Foundation, a major nonprofit Institution with a vision to advance science for the benefit of humanity. Under my leadership, which covered 12 years, the Kavli Foundation became one of the leading philanthropic organizations supporting basic science in the world. At Kavli in 2012, we supported the Brain Activity Mapping Project, an effort that was the central precursor leading to President Obama’s announcement of the U.S. BRAIN Initiative in 2013. The BRAIN Initiative was the first government-funded science grand challenge problem of the 21st century and an example of the crucial role of federal and philanthropic partnerships. Today, the foundation is a key supporter of the International Brain Initiative.
As an advocate of philanthropic funding of science, I was the founding chair of the board of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a community of funders have come together to inspire new, emerging and current philanthropists to dedicate a portion of their philanthropy to basic science. In 2012, six partners – the Kavli, Moore, Sloan and Simons foundations, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement – established the Science Philanthropy Alliance. The membership has grown from these original six to more than 30 members today. Since its formation, the Science Philanthropy Alliance has advised philanthropists and foundations about the importance of science philanthropy and how to increase the effectiveness and scope of their giving.
In all these endeavors I have strived to connect multiple disciplines and promote collaborations amongst the willing.
As part of a community-wide study on cell-cell communication, we have started a discussion about incentives designed to encourage the sharing of ideas by biomedical scientists. We are wondering if you could comment on this discussion and about any relevant insights deriving from your experiences with philanthropy and with large scientific collaborations.
I have described in detail the importance of philanthropy for science and innovation (Conn, Issues in Science and Technology, 2021). The synergy of government, philanthropy, industry, and universities, all supporting science, technology, medicine, and innovation, should be consciously and actively considered when formulating science and technology policies for our country. Philanthropy can bring new perspectives to discussions, and it has a higher level of risk tolerance, often supporting proposed scientific ideas well before those ideas are sufficiently developed to earn government support.
I am aware that many biomedical scientists consider understanding cell-cell communication a key fundamental challenge. Other fields of science dealing with complex problems, most notably particle physics and brain science, have demonstrated that community-wide studies can play an important role in advancing knowledge. Philanthropists and foundations are especially suited to take the lead in encouraging the necessary sharing of ideas, and they have a natural predisposition and track record of supporting collaborations. While the beneficial effects of science on international relations that we were hoping for in the 1980s have only been partially realized, there might be a better chance for such broad international cooperation with a subject, cell to cell communication, that does not depend on agreements among political leaders, likely does not require large scale funding, but instead relies upon the participation of individual scientists.
REFERENCES
Conn RW “An East-West Hunt for Fusion Energy: Costly, Complex Engineering Is Best Done as Joint Effort” Los Angeles Times, 1986. See -
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-18-me-18092-story.html
Conn RW “Why Philanthropy Is America’s Unique Research Advantage”
Issues in Science and Technology, 2021. See -
https://issues.org/philanthropy-science-technology-unique-research-advantage-conn/