Portugal’s
Minister of Science, Technology, Higher
Ed Outlines S&T Future
Shares
EU alignment process, goals
By
Lois
Slavin, Communications Director,
MIT Engineering Systems Division –
May 2, 2008
On
April 7, 2008, José Mariano
Gago, Portugal’s Minister of
Science, Technology and Higher Education,
addressed a standing-room-only audience
at the 7th annual Charles
L. Miller Lecture. His topic was
“The
Future of Science and Technology in
Europe.”
After
being introduced by Daniel Roos, Professor
of Engineering Systems and Civil and
Environmental Engineering and Founding
Director of the MIT Portugal Program
and MIT’s Engineering Systems
Division, Gago described a book
that shared the same title of his
presentation. Created as a result
of a Portuguese Presidency initiative
that paralleled a resolution by the
European Union (EU) Council (the EU’s
main decision-making body), Gago noted
that it was written collectively by
European research ministers.
“Deciding
to produce the book was a political
choice, in recognition of the understanding
that a national EU policy was important
for all countries, even those not
yet members of the EU,” he explained.
Each minister wrote a chapter seen
from their own country’s perspective,
explaining how their policies could
contribute to the EU’s overall
strategic objectives.
Gago
believes that the process of collectively
producing the book was more important
than the book itself because each
author was required to explain how
their country’s national policies
could be combined with others’
to contribute to a common political
objective. “By end of 2007,
we reached consensus through a resolution
of the EU Council that was approved
unanimously by the ministers to define
the future of science and technology
in Europe,” he said.
Gago
noted that while the above process
might appear obvious to those in the
US, this was not the case in Europe
in the year 2000. Moreover, the notion
that all EU governments should accept
the common objective that the development
of knowledge-based economies should
be based on competence in science
and technology was considered a “breakthrough”
idea.
He remarked
that Lisbon’s vision for the
EU “to become the most advanced
knowledge-based economy in the world,
while incorporating social cohesion
and sustainable environmental development
is something that no government can
be against.”
Gago
said that the EU realizes that international
competition for human resources will
be one of the main problems in the
upcoming years and predicted a “reverse
brain drain” from the US that
will balance talent with the EU. He
cautioned that while there will a
more balanced “brain circulation”
and an increased number of women with
degrees in science and technology,
there will be competition to recruit
and retain this talent. “A change
in immigration laws will be needed,”
he said, “as well as increased
public funding for research and development
and the creation of world-class R&D
networks.
Gago
stressed that the EU could help shape
the future of S&T collaborations
between Europe and the US, by bringing
together universities and companies
from both sides of the Atlantic.”
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About the Charles L. Miller Lecture
Professor Joseph
Sussman, JR East Professor of
Engineering Systems and Civil
and Environmental Engineering,
introduced the 7th annual Charles
L. Miller lecture. Co-sponsored
by MIT’s Engineering Systems
Division (ESD) and the Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(CEE), the series is named for
Miller, who was MIT CEE Department
Head from 1962 to 1969. Miller
died in 2000.
Sussman noted
that in 1962, serious questions
were being asked about the viability
– even the survival
– of civil engineering
at MIT. Perhaps slow to react
to a changing educational and
research paradigm, CE had a
small undergraduate enrollment
and lacked a cutting-edge research
agenda in some important areas;
Morale, so he was told, was
low.
“Charlie”,
as he was known came in –
at the time an untenured Associate
Professor from perhaps the most
traditional branch of the Department:
surveying – with a mandate
from then-Dean of Engineering
Gordon Brown to dramatically
change the department.
Miller had two
insights that would shape the
Department for decades to come.
First, he recognized that computers
– what we now call information
technology (IT) – would
revolutionize the practice and
teaching of civil engineering.
Second, he recognized the idea
of civil engineering as the
producer of large, complex
systems, with a tremendous
capacity to change – for
good or ill – quality
of life of people around the
world, as these civil engineering
systems intersect with economic,
environmental and social systems.
Sussman said
that these two initiatives,
computers and systems, may seem
obvious after the fact, but
stressed that Charlie assumed
the helm of this department
more than 40 years ago, when
computers were thought of as
“just a faster way of
doing calculations that people
could do anyway” and systems
were viewed as lacking in intellectual
substance, contrasted with more
microscopic ways of looking
at engineering problems.
Over the next
seven years, Charlie radically
altered the face of the Department
with a number of new faculty
appointments, with the establishment
of the Civil Engineering Systems
Lab, and the development of
the software for Integrated
Civil Engineering Systems, better
known as ICES – “remarkably,
still in use today.”
“Miller
recognized the importance of
new technologies and the importance
of the context in which they
are deployed, which makes the
selection of our speaker for
today, Minister Gago, especially
appropriate,” said Sussman,
who serves, along with Profs.
Daniel Roos and Robert Logher,
as trustees of the Miller Fund. |
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