Is this America's Sputnik Moment?
Re-inventing the Future and Bridging the Basic Applied Dichotomy:  The case of clean energy and the National Laboratories

In this talk I will review (1) the compact and rationale for supporting research at the federal level since World War II.  I will discuss the case for a new compact with a particular emphasis on the grand challenges facing society in the 21st century.  I will examine in some detail the case of energy technology innovation and public policy (2).

1.  Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier, V.Narayanamurti and T.Odumosu, Harvard University Press (October 2016).

2.   Energy Technology Innovation: Laura Diaz Anadon, Matthew Bunn and Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Cambridge University Press (2014).

Bio:
Venkatesh Narayanamurti is the Benjamin Peirce Research Professor of Technology and Public Policy at Harvard. He was formerly the John L. Armstrong Professor and Founding Dean of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of Physics and Dean of Physical Sciences at Harvard. From 2009 to 2015 he served as the Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the author of more than 230 scientific papers in different areas of condensed matter and applied physics. He lectures widely on solid state, computer, and communication, and energy technologies, and on the management of science, technology and public policy. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an elected member of the U.S National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He served as Foreign Secretary of NAE from 2011 to 2015.