85th AMS Annual Meeting

Monday, 10 January 2005: 9:40 AM
Economic development outside the stovepipe - the science connection
James Giraytys, Winchester, VA
Poster PDF (123.1 kB)
Economic development can no more be done in a stovepipe than can scientific research. Yet, economic development commissions normally have few or no science literate members. Science is still too often taught through stovepipe curricula. People in scientific organizations, whether in federal, state, universities, or societies have great difficulty in thinking and reaching outside of self defined constraints. Those constraints are reflected back into how user requirements are defined and user needs are met. It is difficult to think of systems holistically. And to understand how and why they function, and too often fail to meet the end user needs. This paper sets out a challenge to scientific organizations and societies like the AMS to think and work “outside of the stovepipe”. It also describes a program at James Madison University that is training people to put science into economic development.

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