Discovery September 1999

by Annette Trinity-Stevens

Four congressional staff members who help set budgets for the National Science Foundation visited the state last month to see first-hand the kinds of science projects the agency funds in Montana.

"You sit in Washington, you hear briefings, you think you know about a program," said Steve Eule, staff director for the basic research subcommittee of the House Science Committee. "But it's always good to get out and see for ourselves. It's the difference between hearing and seeing."

Eule, three other committee members and an NSF employee spent two days digging dinosaur bones with MSU paleontologist Jack Horner at the Hell Creek State Park near Jordan. The next day they visited a hot springs in Yellowstone National Park to help sample for heat-loving microorganisms. They ended their trip on the MSU campus, where they heard about sticky bacteria that cause chronic infections, lasers being developed for high-speed telecommunications and science classes taught over the Internet to teachers across the country.

All the projects except Horner's currently are funded by the agency, which has a $3.7 billion annual budget. Horner has had NSF grants in the past, including a "seed" grant more than a decade ago that allowed him to pursue his path-breaking studies of dinosaur nests at Egg Mountain.

"It's been really interesting and useful to us," said Sharon Hays, who just joined the House Science Committee. "It makes a big difference to see in the field the intentions of the NSF programs that we authorize."

The group came to Montana, in part, to see how projects funded by NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) are improving the state economy, said the agency's Karen Pearce. MSU physics professor John Carlsten showed the group laser diode research that is helping ILX Lightwave in Bozeman grow by 50 percent a year.

"Before EPSCoR we were just starting to do diode laser technology," Carlsten said. "What EPSCoR has allowed us to do is expand the work so all of it is laserdiode based."

Pearce said she organized the hands-on tour of Montana science because Congressional staff members are not impressed by sitting in a room and having someone preach to them about why basic research is important.

"Personally I don't think that gives you a flavor for what the researchers are trying to do and why they are doing it," Pearce said. "For science, hands-on experience is the best way to get the message across."

The last time Congressional committee members visited Montana was 10 years ago, she said.