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9 Decadal Survey Stewardship: The Role of the Mid-Decade Reviews and Standing Committees
Pages 71-77

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From page 71...
... Kennel, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science Emeritus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego; Chair, Space Studies Board; Co-Chair, Workshop Planning Committee Panelists: Waleed Abdalati, Chief Scientist, NASA 1 Stacey Boland, Senior Systems Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Member, Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space; Consultant, 2007 Earth Science and Applications from Space Decadal Survey Larry Esposito, Professor, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder Louis Lanzerotti, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Member, Committee on Solar and Space Physics; Chair, 2003 Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey Christopher McKee, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley; Member, Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics; Co-Chair, 2001 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey INTRODUCTORY REMARKS The moderator, Charlie Kennel, opened the session by asking the workshop participants to think about who is to care for the recommendations of the decadal survey and ensure that the basic values and intent of the surveys are maintained throughout their implementation. Kennel noted that the standing 1 Waleed Abdalati was NASA's chief scientist at the time of the workshop, but he retired from this position at the end of 2012 to return to the University of Colorado.
From page 72...
... He suggests that future decadal surveys explicitly articulate the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved and that those roles are agreed to in advance. Stacey Boland then provided her thoughts on decadal survey stewardship from having worked on both a decadal survey and a mid-decade assessment and from currently serving on an SSB standing committee.
From page 73...
... Louis Lanzerotti, who has served on numerous decadal surveys and midterm assessments and has worked with the SSB and its standing committees for decades, noted that one of the trickier aspects of evaluating the success of a decadal survey's implementation is that there are different timescales that can be used. Additionally, in the case of Earth science and solar and space physics, standing committees and midterms have to evaluate the science and applications elements of missions differently, but there is no consistent way of doing that.
From page 74...
... The standing committees would be tuned to the latest scientific advances and state of the field and well aware of programmatic issues at NASA or other sponsor agencies, and they would be able to clearly establish how best to use the cost and technical evaluation process. PANEL DISCUSSION The panel discussion focused on the differences between the NRC standing committees and NASA's internal advisory committees and how to strengthen the overall NASA advisory apparatus.
From page 75...
... Louis Lanzerotti said that he heard from the former decadal survey chairs that attended scientific conferences and spoke positively of their experiences. However, the standing committees are another way to engage the community, and perhaps should be more heavily relied on for this function as decadal surveys are being set up.
From page 76...
... An audience member noted that NASA's Heliophysics Division conducts roadmap exercises more frequently than the decadal surveys and asked if the roadmap activity serves a useful function in keeping science strategy fresh and frequently communicated. Abdalati said that the term "roadmap" is a bit strong, and if such an activity were consistent with and supplements the decadal survey, then there may not be much of a reason to do it.
From page 77...
... Calling on members of Congress or congressional committees personally, he said, is not really appropriate for the standing committees or individual members. Stacey Boland said that the co-chairs for the 2007 Earth science decadal survey were instrumental in that survey's impact on the government and the community because of their advocacy and clearly reiterating the consensus surrounding the survey.


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