Way back in the 1960s, the United States created wide-ranging “alphabet soup” academic curricula to improve scientific literacy and the nation’s technological competitiveness. The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik, and the United States now saw the urgency of educating our next generation of scientists. Hence, new curricula like BSCS (biology), CHEMS (chemistry), and PSSC (physics ) were established. This was 60 years ago, but I remember it well. It sparked my interest in science and launched my career!
During graduate school, I became a next-generation scientist, or Next Gen, and I worked to expand the study of animal behavior by helping create the field of behavioral ecology. We quantified natural history, modeled animal decision-making using game theory, and tested our models via manipulative experiments, all to help unravel how the environment—both the physical and the social—shape behavior.
Given that the U.S. government is now suppressing any scientific endeavor that does not support its political or economic interests, many scientists of my generation feel that we are at another “Sputnik moment,” one not created by an outside threat, but rather created from within. When Sputnik was launched, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, and the NSF and NIH sprang into action to create the aforementioned curricula, the benefits of which are now crystal clear. Today, sadly, no top-down action is likely to rescue science and maintain the pipeline of talented youngsters displaying moxie, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Instead, the challenge must be met with bottom-up action. And this is where Sigma Xi and its members must play a leadership role.
It begins with our virtual conference, the 2025 International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE), where scientists of all ages come together to share interdisciplinary research insights. With the theme of “Science and Society: Crafting a Vision for a Sustainable Tomorrow,” IFoRE ’25 will welcome hundreds of STEM students presenting their research and sharing their vision of what a sustainable tomorrow looks like.
Furthermore, because Sigma Xi is a network of Chapters, we should seek to expand the Society’s ability to accelerate and advance the imagination of Next Gens worldwide. When I was president of the Princeton Chapter, I worked with Rush Holt—then deputy director of the university’s Plasma Physics Lab and later our region’s U.S. congressional representative—to create the Science Advisors Program. We collaborated with science directors from local pharmaceutical companies and superintendents of local schools, to implement hands-on science kits that encouraged thinking, hypothesis generation, and testing of predictions at all grade levels. It made a difference. Given that today’s students have not performed well in science on the recent Nation’s Report Card, it is clearly time for Sigma Xi scientists to get involved again and figure out how to find, mentor, and nurture the new Next Gens.
Challenge your chapters to get involved. Otherwise, I fear that the nurturing of minds to solve the scientific problems confronting society today will fall by the wayside. And please share your ideas with me at dir@princeton.edu so that I can broadcast them widely to our members.
Sincerely,
Daniel I. Rubenstein
Sigma Xi President