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105-422: The CIRI data were free for not-for-profit users. Once registered, CIRI users could create customized datasets, choosing only the indicators, countries, and years they needed; or, they could download the entire data set. As of December 2007, CIRI began using its own numeric country identifier code, but continued to offer others for the purpose of data merging. The MyCIRI feature allowed users to store their datasets on

210-466: A United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. He holds the record for being the longest-serving senator from Wisconsin. Known as a political maverick and an aggressive critic of wasteful government spending, Proxmire invented and awarded the tongue-in-cheek Golden Fleece Award to appropriations he found particularly egregious. He was a member of the Senate Banking Committee ,

315-465: A 'merit review' process, the current version of which was introduced in 1997. Reviews are carried out by ad hoc reviewers and panels of independent scientists, engineers, and educators who are experts in the relevant fields of study, and who are selected by the NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest. For example, reviewers cannot work at the NSF itself, nor for the institution that employs

420-702: A chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water of about 300,000 West Virginia residents. In early 2018, it was announced that Trump would cut NSF Research Funding by 30% but quickly rescinded this due to backlash. As of May 2018, Heather Wilson, the secretary of the Air Force, signed that letter of intent with the director of NSF initiating partnership for the research related to space operations and Geosciences , advanced material sciences , information and data sciences , and workforce and processes. The NSF seeks to fulfill its mission chiefly by issuing competitive, limited-term grants in response to specific proposals from

525-490: A confirmation by the Senate. He said that any actions taken by Bork in the period after the 39 had passed could be met by challenge, and he called on President Nixon to rectify the situation. Assistant Attorney General Robert G. Dixon Jr. disputed Proxmire's claim by saying that similar occurrences of Acting Attorneys General that went over 30 days without Senate confirmations had happened six times earlier. In January 1977, Proxmire

630-583: A foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions. The NSF is broadly organized into four offices, seven directorates, and the National Science Board . It employs about 2,100 people in permanent, temporary and contractual positions at its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia . Prior to 2017, its headquarters were located in Arlington, Virginia . In addition to around 1,400 permanent employees and

735-490: A funding rate of 28%. In FY 2021, the estimates are 43,200 and 11,500 respectively, giving a funding rate of 26.6%. According to FY 2020 numbers, the median annualized award size is $ 153,800 and the average duration of an award is 2.9 years. In 2022 the NSF has started funding open source software as part of their Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program. Although the federal government had established nearly 40 scientific organizations between 1910 and 1940,

840-464: A lack of evidence to show that Miller had been personally involved in bribes. In February 1978, Proxmire said that the Navy and the Air Force had spent "at least $ 42,000 in the last year transporting 3,500 local community leaders to 31 military bases to lobby for military programs" and labeled the trips an example of local citizens being lobbied for military programs. Proxmire added that the trips had included

945-406: A more integrated approach than did most academic departments at the time, encouraging physicists, chemists, engineers, and metallurgists to cross departmental boundaries and use systems approaches to attack complex problems of materials synthesis or processing. The NSF expanded these laboratories into a nationwide network of Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers . In 1972 the NSF launched

1050-557: A number of programs that support institution-wide research during this decade including the Graduate Science Facilities program (started in 1960), Institutional Grants for Science (started in 1961), and Science Development Grants, better known as Centers of Excellence program (started in 1964). Notable projects conducted during this decade include creation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (1960), creation of

1155-685: A publication of the Madison Federation of Labor. Proxmire served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1951 to 1953. During his Assembly service, Proxmire was one of few members who maintained a perfect attendance record, a trait that he later continued in the U.S. Senate. While in the Assembly, he was employed as president of Artcraft Press of Waterloo . Proxmire was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in 1952 , 1954 and 1956 . In August 1957, Proxmire won

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1260-669: A result of Roosevelt 's New Deal ) would eventually raise concern during the wartime period. In particular, concerns were raised that industry laboratories were largely allowed full patent rights of technologies developed with federal funds. These concerns, in part, led to efforts like Senator Harley M. Kilgore 's "Science Mobilization Act". Amidst growing awareness that US military capability depended on strength in science and engineering, Congress considered several proposals to support research in these fields. Separately, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sponsored creation of organizations to coordinate federal funding of science for war, including

1365-412: A search engine that used the links between Web pages as a ranking method, which they later commercialized under the name Google . In 1996 NSF-funded research established beyond doubt that the chemistry of the atmosphere above Antarctica was grossly abnormal and that levels of key chlorine compounds are greatly elevated. During two months of intense work, NSF researchers learned most of what is known about

1470-557: A settlement, and the potentially-years-long process could prevent the Senate Banking Committee from taking any action. June 1978 had four days of scheduled hearings by the Senate Banking Committee on continued federal aid to New York City. After the June 6 hearing, Proxmire stated he had maintained an open mind in spite of leaning toward opposition, a shift from his prior position of unwavering disagreement with continued aid and that he

1575-606: A social science project investigating why people fall in love. Ultimately, the OMB's 75% reduction proposal failed, but the NSF Economics Program budget did fall 40%. In 2012, political science research was barred from NSF funding by the passage of the Flake Amendment, breaking the precedent of granting the NSF autonomy to determine its own priorities. In fiscal year 2020, NSF received 42,400 proposals and awarded 12,100, for

1680-421: A son, Theodore, and a daughter, Elsie Stillman (Proxmire) Zwerner. Elsie Proxmire received an uncontested divorce in 1955. In 1956, Proxmire married Ellen Imogene Hodges Sawall, who brought two children of her own to the marriage. Together, the couple had two sons, one of whom died in infancy. Proxmire was the first United States Senator to get hair transplants for his pattern hair loss . The treatment he

1785-518: A teaching fellow at Harvard, Proxmire moved to Wisconsin to be a reporter for The Capital Times in Madison and to advance his political career in a favorable state. "They fired me after I'd been there seven months, for labor activities and impertinence," he once said. When he ran successfully for the state legislature in 1950, Proxmire was working as the business manager of the Union Labor News ,

1890-402: A variety of perspectives. Themes include disagreements over administrative structure, patents and inclusion of social sciences, a populist -versus-scientist dispute, as well as the roles of political parties, Congress, and President Truman . Commonly, this debate is characterized by the conflict between New Deal Senator Harley M. Kilgore and OSRD head Vannevar Bush . Narratives about

1995-496: A waste of federal funds: "On the basis of every statistical study, both by the Navy and independent groups, private shipyards can build, repair or modernize five ships for the same number of dollars needed to turn out four ships in navy shipyards." Proxmire unsuccessfully favored proposals that awarded contracts to the lowest bidder to save money and close unneeded facilities, and he pointed out that "the advantages of this free enterprise approach" had been recognized by Robert McNamara ,

2100-736: A whole. Examples of national facilities include the NSF's national observatories, with their giant optical and radio telescopes; its Antarctic research sites; its high-end computer facilities and ultra-high-speed network connections; the ships and submersibles used for ocean research; and its gravitational wave observatories. In addition to researchers and research facilities, NSF grants also support science, engineering and mathematics education from pre-K through graduate school. Undergraduates can receive funding through Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer programs. Graduate students are supported through Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeships (IGERT) and Alliance for Graduate Education and

2205-481: Is Sethuraman Panchanathan. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) was established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950. Its stated mission is "to promote the progress of science, to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, and to secure the national defense." The NSF's scope has expanded over the years to include many areas that were not in its initial portfolio, including

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2310-493: Is one of the principal U.S. statistical agencies . It is a part of the NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). In May 2011, Republican Senator Tom Coburn released a 73-page report, " National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope ", receiving immediate attention from such media outlets as The New York Times , Fox News , and MSNBC . The report found fault with various research projects and

2415-545: Is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about $ 9.9 billion (fiscal year 2023), the NSF funds approximately 25% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing. NSF's director and deputy director are appointed by

2520-699: The Antarctic Treaty reserving Antarctica for peaceful and scientific research, and a presidential directive gave the NSF responsibility for virtually all U.S. Antarctic operations and research in form of the United States Antarctic Program . In 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Leland John Haworth as the second director of the NSF. During the 1960s, the impact of the Sputnik Crisis spurred international competition in science and technology and accelerated NSF growth. The NSF initiated

2625-596: The Chi Psi fraternity. During 1940 and 1941 Proxmire was a student clerk at J.P. Morgan & Co. and studied public speaking at Columbia University . During World War II he joined the United States Army as a private , and advanced through the ranks to master sergeant . Proxmire later received a commission in the Military Intelligence branch. Most of his service involved counterintelligence work in

2730-611: The Federal Aviation Administration for studying "the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the 'length of the buttocks.'" Proxmire's critics said that some of his Golden Fleece awards went to basic science projects that led to important breakthroughs. In some circles, his name has become a verb for unfairly obstructing scientific research for political gain, as in "the project has been proxmired." In 1987, Stewart Brand accused Proxmire of recklessly attacking legitimate research for

2835-539: The Gemini Observatory and the Arecibo Observatory , all of which are funded in whole or in part by NSF. The NSF's astronomy program forged a close working relationship with NASA , also founded in 1958, in that the NSF provides virtually all the U.S. federal support for ground-based astronomy, while NASA's responsibility is the U.S. effort in space-based astronomy. In 1959 the U.S. and other nations concluded

2940-541: The National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) both from 1941 to 1947. Despite broad agreement over the principle of federal support for science, working out a consensus on how to organize and manage it required five years. The five-year political debate over the creation of a national scientific agency has been a topic for academic study, understood from

3045-497: The National Nanotechnology Initiative , dedicated to the understanding and control of matter at the atomic and molecular scale. NSF's roughly $ 300 million annual investment in nanotechnology research was still one of the largest in the 23-agency initiative. In 2001, NSF's appropriation passed $ 4 billion. The NSF's "Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology" revealed that

3150-680: The Secretary of Defense and a former corporate chief executive officer. From 1967 to 1986, Proxmire gave daily speeches noting the necessity of ratifying the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . He gave that speech every day that the Senate was in session for 20 years, for a total of 3,211 times. On February 11, 1986 the U.S. Senate ratified the convention. In March 1969, Proxmire introduced legislation that would have regulated

3255-755: The Senate Appropriations Committee , and the Joint Economic Committee . On the Joint Economic Committee, he exposed numerous instances of wasteful spending on military programs such as the C-5 aircraft and the F-16 fighter, as well as other government programs such as the development of a supersonic transport airplane (SST). The son of Dr. Theodore Stanley Proxmire, a Chicago-area surgeon, and Adele (Flanigan) Proxmire, Edward William Proxmire

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3360-427: The U.S. Capitol by arguing that a "large part of the space created by the extension" would be used "to house private hideaway offices" for 23 senators. Proxmire continued to oppose the renovation, and the debate continued until the project was completed in the early 1970s. In March 1964, Proxmire charged that political concerns, not national defense needs, were keeping too many naval shipyards open, which resulted in

3465-498: The U.S. Constitution . The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that that clause does not immunize members of Congress from liability for defamatory statements made outside of formal congressional proceedings ( Hutchinson v. Proxmire , 443 U.S. 111 (1979)). The case was eventually settled out of court. In 1946, Proxmire married Elsie Stillman Rockefeller, a great-granddaughter of William Rockefeller , brother and partner of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller . They had two children,

3570-690: The ozone hole . In 1998 two independent teams of NSF-supported astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was actually speeding up, as if some previously unknown force, now known as dark energy , is driving the galaxies apart at an ever-increasing rate. Since passage of the Small Business Technology Transfer Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–564, Title II), NSF has been required to reserve 0.3% of its extramural research budget for Small Business Technology Transfer awards, and 2.8% of its R&D budget for small business innovation research. NSF joined with other federal agencies in

3675-633: The screwworm fly , the results of which were used to create sterile screwworms that were released into the wild and eliminated this major cattle parasite from North and Central America, which reduced the cost of beef and dairy products across the globe. In fact, there is no evidence for this claim in the Proxmire papers held by the Wisconsin Historical Society. In addition, the United States Department of Agriculture funded research on

3780-444: The "Science Mobilization Act" (S. 1297), which did not pass. Perceiving organizational chaos, elitism, over-concentration of funds in elite universities, and lack of incentives for socially applicable research, Kilgore envisioned a comprehensive and centralized research body supporting basic and applied research which would be controlled by members of the public and civil servants rather than scientific experts. The public would own

3885-525: The 1982 NASA budget that effectively terminated NASA's nascent SETI efforts before a similar amendment to the 1994 budget, by Senator Richard Bryan , terminated NASA's SETI efforts for good. With those positions, Proxmire drew the enmity of many space advocates and science fiction fandom . Arthur C. Clarke attacked Proxmire in his short story " Death and the Senator " (1960) . Later, the short story " The Return of William Proxmire " (1989) by Larry Niven and

3990-617: The 2007 fiscal year (October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007), and in 2007 NSF requested $ 6.43 billion for FY 2008. President Obama requested $ 7.373 billion for fiscal year 2013. Due to the October 1, 2013 shutdown of the Federal Government, and NSF's lapse in funding, their website was down "until further notice", but was brought back online after the US government passed their budget. In 2014, NSF awarded rapid response grants to study

4095-568: The Air Force favoring production of the B‐1 bomber and gave an estimate cost of 42,000, as the Air Force had turned down on specifying the price. In February 1979, Proxmire sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal to call on the Treasury Department to withhold federal loan guarantees from New York City until incumbent Mayor Ed Koch agreed to larger cuts in the budget for

4200-533: The Banking Committee, Proxmire rose through seniority to become a high-ranking member of the Appropriations Committee and was active on several subcommittees, including Defense , Housing and Urban Development , Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies , and Postal Service and Related Agencies. In October 1961, Proxmire issued a statement opposing a planned $ 22 million renovation of

4305-605: The CIRI coding methodology. The new scores are available from the Binghamton University Human Rights Institute website at www.binghamton.edu/institutes/hri/researcher-resources.html . National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart

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4410-516: The CIRI indicators were ratings (as opposed to rankings) on a scale of 0-2 for their respect of human rights, as follows: The CIRI database used the annual country reports from the US State Department and Amnesty International as its primary sources. The CIRI Human Rights Data Project has not produced scores since 2011. The CIRIGHTS Data Project co-directed by David Cingranelli, Mikhail Filippov and Skip Mark has produced new annual scores using

4515-697: The CIRI server and easily update them when the master CIRI data was updated. Financial support for the CIRI Data Project came from the United States' National Science Foundation ; The World Bank ; GTZ ; Binghamton University , SUNY; the Center on Democratic Performance at Binghamton University, SUNY; The Human Rights Institute and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at The University of Connecticut . The CIRI database coded only human rights PRACTICES of governments. The human rights for which government levels of respect were annually rated by CIRI included: Most of

4620-529: The Chicago area, where members of his unit investigated individuals suspected of subversive activity . He served from 1941 to 1946, and was discharged as a first lieutenant . While in the Army, Proxmire also continued to study public speaking at Northwestern University . After discharge, he was an executive trainee at J. P. Morgan before returning to Harvard. After getting his second master's degree while working as

4725-695: The Division of Environmental Sciences (1965), deep sea exploration endeavors Project Mohole (1961) and the Deep Sea Drilling Project (1968–1983), the Ecosystems Analysis Program (1969), and ownership of the Arecibo Observatory (1969). In 1969, Franklin Long was tentatively selected to take over directorship of the NSF. His nomination caused some controversy due to his opposition to the current administration's antiballistic missile program and

4830-474: The Federal Reserve , Proxmire was noted to be a reliable source of contention but predicted from the start of his confirmation process that Miller would meet little opposition. At the end of the month, eleven members of the Senate Banking Committee pressed for a confirmation of Miller as Federal Reserve Chair, a motion that Proxmire rejected while he was scheduling the vote for another day, and he admitted that

4935-670: The General Accounting Office Elmer B. Staats to request the GAO to investigate claims that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had authorized the P.I. Properties to steal funds from the federal government and low income tenants. The same day, Proxmire delivered a speech on the Senate floor that condemned the failure of the Housing and Urban Development Department to act on recommendation from staff members to terminate funding for

5040-456: The NSF delivered ozone sensors, along with balloons and helium, to researchers at the South Pole so they can measure stratospheric ozone loss. This was in response to findings earlier that year, indicating a steep drop in ozone over a period of several years. The Internet project continued, now known as NSFNET . In 1990 the NSF's appropriation passed $ 2 billion for the first time. NSF funded

5145-598: The NSF has 53 existing contracts. The NSF also supports research through several offices within the Office of the Director, including the Office of Integrative Activities, and Office of International Science and Engineering. The NSF organizes its research and education support through eight directorates, each encompassing several disciplines: An eighth directorate, the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP),

5250-428: The NSF. In 1981, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) introduced a proposal to reduce the NSF social sciences directorate's budget by 75%. Economist Robert A. Moffit suggests a connection between this proposal and Democratic Senator William Proxmire's Golden Fleece Award series criticizing "frivolous" government spending — Proxmire's first Golden Fleece had been awarded to the NSF in 1975 for granting $ 84,000 to

5355-611: The National Science Foundation prior to the 1970s typically concentrated on Vannevar Bush and his 1945 publication Science—The Endless Frontier. In this report, Vannevar Bush, then head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development which began the Manhattan Project , addressed plans for the postwar years to further foster government commitment to science and technology. Issued to President Harry S. Truman in July 1945,

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5460-543: The National Science Foundation. which provided for a National Science Board of twenty-four part-time members. In 1951 Truman nominated Alan T. Waterman , chief scientist at the Office of Naval Research , to become the first Director. With the Korean War underway, the agency's initial budget was just $ 151,000 for 9 months. After moving its administrative offices twice, NSF began its first full year of operations with an appropriation from Congress of $ 3.5 million, far less

5565-627: The P.I. Properties' 285-unit project at 14th and Clifton Streets in Washington, DC. Proxmire was noted for issuing his Golden Fleece Award , which was presented monthly between 1975 and 1988 to focus media attention on projects that he viewed as self-serving and wasteful of taxpayer dollars. Winners of the Golden Fleece Award included governmental organizations like the United States Department of Defense , Bureau of Land Management , and National Park Service . The first Golden Fleece Award

5670-539: The Professoriate (AGEP) programs and through the Graduate Research Fellowships, NSF-GRF . K–12 and some community college instructors are eligible to participate in compensated Research Experiences for Teachers programs. In addition, an early career-development program (CAREER) supports teacher-scholars that most effectively integrate research and education within the mission of their organization, as

5775-473: The Smith bill made it to President Truman's desk, but it was vetoed. Truman wrote that regrettably, the proposed agency would have been "divorced from control by the people to an extent that implies a distinct lack of faith in the democratic process". The third attempt began with the introduction of S. 2385 in 1948. This was a compromise bill cosponsored by Smith and Kilgore, and Bush aide John Teeter had contributed in

5880-465: The U.S. Senate record for consecutive roll call votes cast: 10,252 between April 20, 1966, and October 18, 1988. In doing so, he surpassed the previous record of 2,941, which was held by Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. In January 2016, Chuck Grassley broke Proxmire's record for longest amount of time between missed votes, but during his time without missing a roll call, Grassley had cast about 3,000 fewer votes than Proxmire. Proxmire served as

5985-462: The US relied upon a primarily laissez-faire approach to scientific research and development. Academic research in science and engineering occasionally received federal funding. Within University laboratories, almost all support came from private contributions and charitable foundations. In industrial laboratories, the concentration of workers and funding (some through military and government programs as

6090-400: The agency's move to a more nimble international posture. Rather than maintain dedicated offices, NSF will dispatch small teams to specific international institutions. Teams may work for up to a week on-site to evaluate research and explore collaborations with the institution. In addition to the research it funds in specific disciplines, the NSF has launched a number of projects that coordinate

6195-414: The almost $ 33.5 million requested with which 28 research grants were awarded. After the 1957 Soviet Union orbited Sputnik 1 , the first ever human-made satellite, national self-appraisal questioned American education, scientific, technical and industrial strength and Congress increased the NSF appropriation for 1958 to $ 40 million. In 1958 the NSF selected Kitt Peak , near Tucson, Arizona , as

6300-427: The best judges of the direction and needs of their field. While Bush and Kilgore both agreed on the need for a national science policy, Bush maintained that scientists should continue to own the research results and patents , wanted project selection limited to scientists, and focused support on basic research, not the social sciences, leaving the market to support applied projects. Sociologist Daniel Kleinman divides

6405-449: The biennial "Science & Engineering Indicators" report to the US president and Congress, as required by the NSF Act of 1950. In 1977 the first interconnection of unrelated networks was developed, run by DARPA . During this decade, increasing NSF involvement lead to a three-tiered system of internetworks managed by a mix of universities, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. By

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6510-497: The chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs from 1975 to 1981 and again from 1987 to 1989. During his first tenure in this position, Proxmire was instrumental in devising the financial plan that saved New York City from bankruptcy in 1976–77. Proxmire's subcommittee memberships included Financial Institutions , Housing and Urban Affairs , and International Finance and Monetary Policy . In addition to his work on

6615-406: The crass purpose of furthering his own political career, with gross indifference as to whether his assertions were true or false as well as the long-term effects on American science and technology policy. Proxmire later apologized for several canceled projects, including SETI . It is widely but incorrectly believed that Proxmire gave the award to Edward F. Knipling for his study of the sex life of

6720-672: The credit life and disability insurance industries. He declared that Americans were being overcharged $ 220 million a year. Proxmire was an early and outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and frequently criticized Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon . On the Senate Armed Services Committee, he exposed wasteful military spending and was instrumental in blocking military pork barrel projects. Despite his support of budgetary restraint, he regularly sided with dairy interests and supported dairy price supports . Proxmire

6825-521: The debate into three broad legislative attempts. The first attempt consisted of the 1945 Magnuson bill (S. 1285), the 1945 Science and Technology Mobilization Bill, a 1945 compromise bill (S. 1720), a 1946 compromise bill (S. 1850), and the Mills Bill (H.B. 6448). The Magnuson bill was sponsored by Senator Warren Magnuson and drafted by the OSRD, headed by Vannevar Bush. The Science and Technology Mobilization bill

6930-747: The development of several curricula based on the NCTM standards , devised by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics . These standards were widely adopted by school districts during the subsequent decade. However, in what newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal called the "math wars", organizations such as Mathematically Correct complained that some elementary texts based on the standards, including Mathland , had almost entirely abandoned any instruction of traditional arithmetic in favor of cutting, coloring, pasting, and writing. During that debate, NSF

7035-620: The drafting process. In 1949, S. 247 was introduced by the same group of senators behind S. 2385, marking the fourth and final effort to establish a national science agency. Essentially identical to S. 2385, S. 247 passed the Senate and the House with a few amendments. It was signed by President Truman on May 10, 1950. Kleinman points out that the final NSF bill closely resembles Vannevar Bush's proposals. (Harley Kilgore) (Vannevar Bush) 1950 Business, labor, farmers, consumers In 1950 Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 507, or 42 U.S.C. 16 creating

7140-519: The efforts of experts in many disciplines, which often involve collaborations with other U.S. federal agencies. Examples include initiatives in: NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) gathers data from surveys and partnerships with other agencies to offer official data on the American science and engineering workforce, graduates of advanced U.S. science and engineering programs, and R&D expenditures by U.S. industry. NCSES

7245-602: The first freely available browser to allow World Wide Web pages that include both graphics and text. Within 18 months, NCSA Mosaic becomes the Web browser of choice for more than a million users, and sets off an exponential growth in the number of Web users. In 1994 NSF, together with DARPA and NASA , launched the Digital Library Initiative. One of the first six grants went to Stanford University , where two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin , began to develop

7350-453: The following year. He charged the budgetary assumptions of the city as being too reliant on federal aid increases. In March, Proxmire sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Miller on his reservations on the establishment of a free trade zone to allow international banking activity in New York City and advocated for the proposal to be first submitted to Congress, as opposed to unilateral regulatory action. In October 1979, Proxmire wrote head of

7455-434: The goals and aims of the agency and published a revised version of the merit review criteria in its 2012 report, to clarify and improve the function of the criteria. However, both criteria already had been mandated for all NSF merit review procedures in the 2010 re-authorization of the America COMPETES Act . The Act also includes an emphasis on promoting potentially transformative research , a phrase which has been included in

7560-412: The measure by bottling it up in committee. In May, Proxmire announced his willingness to hold hearings on continued federal aid to New York City prior to municipal labor unions having their contracts negotiated and that the Senate Banking Committee would wait as long as possible to secure information on the labor settlement's impact. Proxmire stated it was not aware of when the labor contracts would reach

7665-517: The mid-1980s, primary financial support for the growing project was assumed by the NSF. In 1983, NSF budget topped $ 1 billion for the first time. Major increases in the nation's research budget were proposed as "the country recognizes the importance of research in science and technology, and education". The U.S. Antarctic Program was taken out of the NSF appropriation now requiring a separate appropriation. The NSF received more than 27,000 proposals and funded more than 12,000 of them in 1983. In 1985,

7770-403: The most recent incarnation of the 'merit review' criteria. Most NSF grants go to individuals or small groups of investigators, who carry out research at their home campuses. Other grants provide funding for mid-scale research centers, instruments, and facilities that serve researchers from many institutions. Still, others fund national-scale facilities that are shared by the research community as

7875-508: The new millennium have been two reports, variously called "Performance Report" and "Accountability Report" or "Performance Highlights" and "Financial Highlights"; the latest available FY 2013 Agency Financial Report was posted December 16, 2013, and the six-page FY 2013 Performance and Financial Highlights was posted March 25, 2013. More recently, the NSF has focused on obtaining high return on investment from their spending on scientific research. Various bills have sought to direct funds within

7980-539: The nomination would be easily confirmed by the panel and the full chamber. On March 2, Proxmire cast the sole dissenting vote against the Miller nomination and called him unqualified for the office since he was without experience in economic or monetary affairs. Proxmire acknowledged Miller's business success and was joined by ranking Republican, Edward W. Brooke , in indicating that the Carter administration had influenced members of

8085-681: The novel Fallen Angels (1991) , written by Niven, Jerry Pournelle , and Michael F. Flynn , were directed against the senator. In May 1971, Proxmire charged the Food and Drug Administration with violating federal law by authorizing residues of a cancer‐inducing hormone to come into contact with consumers, asserted the move to be in violation of the Delaney amendment in the Food Additives Amendment of 1958 , and called for an immediate ban on Diethylstilbestrol . In September 1971, Proxmire asserted

8190-485: The panel to hasten the confirmation process. When Miller was later nominated as Secretary of the Treasury in August 1979, Proxmire was once again the only senator to oppose confirmation. He claimed to base his vote on Miller's "unwillingness to open a full-scale investigation of allegations that Textron , the company he once headed, paid bribes to numerous foreign officials while Mr. Miller was in charge." Proxmire acknowledged

8295-602: The president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate, whereas the 24 president-appointed members of the National Science Board (NSB) do not require U.S. Senate confirmation. The director and deputy director are responsible for administration, planning, budgeting and day-to-day operations of the foundation, while the NSB meets six times a year to establish its overall policies. The current NSF director

8400-438: The proposing researchers. All proposal evaluations are confidential: the proposing researchers may see them, but they do not see the names of the reviewers. The first merit review criterion is 'intellectual merit', the second is that of the 'broader societal impact' of the proposed research; the latter reflects a broader global trend for funding agencies to demand evidence of research 'impact' and has been met with opposition from

8505-519: The public had a positive attitude toward science, but a poor understanding of it. During 2004–5 NSF sent "rapid response" research teams to investigate the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and Hurricane Katrina . An NSF-funded engineering team helped uncover why the levees failed in New Orleans . In 2005, NSF's budget stood at $ 5.6 billion, in 2006 it stood at $ 5.91 billion for

8610-510: The report made a strong case for federally-funded scientific research, arguing that the nation would reap rich dividends in the form of better health care, a more vigorous economy, and a stronger national defense. It proposed creating a new federal agency, the National Research Foundation. The NSF first appeared as a comprehensive New Deal Policy proposed by Sen. Harley Kilgore of West Virginia. In 1942, Senator Kilgore introduced

8715-658: The research community and establishing cooperative agreements with research organizations. It does not operate its own laboratories, unlike other federal research agencies, notable examples being NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NSF uses four main mechanisms to communicate funding opportunities and generate proposals: dear colleague letters, program descriptions, program announcements, and program solicitations. The NSF receives over 50,000 such proposals each year, and funds about 10,000 of them. Those funded are typically projects that are ranked highest in

8820-543: The rights to all patents funded by public monies and research monies would be equitably spread across universities. Kilgore's supporters included non-elite universities, small businesses, and the Budget Bureau. His proposals received mixed support. Vannevar Bush opposed Kilgore, preferring science policy driven by experts and scientists rather than public and civil servants. Bush was concerned that public interests would politicize science, and believed that scientists would be

8925-587: The safety margin of the C‐5A cargo plane was threatened in spite of doubling costs and charged the US Air Force with not disclosing information on the costs to Congress. In 1972, Proxmire urged the Air Force to recall General John D. Lavelle to active duty for the purpose of court-martial . Lavelle had been forced to retire as a major general due to alleged misconduct concerning Vietnam War bombing missions while he served as commander of Seventh Air Force. Lavelle

9030-455: The scientific and policy communities since its inception in 1997. In June 2010, the National Science Board (NSB), the governing body for NSF and science advisers to both the legislative and executive branches, convened a 'Task Force on Merit Review' to determine "how well the current Merit Review criteria used by the NSF to evaluate all proposals were serving the agency." The task force reinforced its support for both criteria as appropriate for

9135-505: The sex life of the screwworm fly took place in the 1930s to the 1950s, long before the Golden Fleece era of the 1970s and 1980s, when Proxmire largely targeted contemporary research. One winner of the Golden Fleece Award, Ronald Hutchinson, sued Proxmire for defamation in 1976. Proxmire claimed that his statements about Hutchinson's research were protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of

9240-644: The site of the first national observatory, that would give any astronomer unprecedented access to state-of-the-art telescopes; previously major research telescopes were privately funded, available only to astronomers who taught at the universities that ran them. The idea expanded to encompass the National Optical Astronomy Observatory , the National Radio Astronomy Observatory , the National Solar Observatory ,

9345-619: The social and behavioral sciences, engineering, and science and mathematics education. The NSF is the only U.S. federal agency with a mandate to support all non-medical fields of research. Since the technology boom of the 1980s, the U.S. Congress has generally embraced the premise that government-funded basic research is essential for the nation's economic health and global competitiveness, and for national defense. This support has manifested in an expanding National Science Foundation budget from $ 1 billion in 1983 to $ 8.28 billion in 2020. NSF has published annual reports since 1950, which since

9450-481: The special election to fill the remainder of the U.S. Senate term vacated by the May 2, 1957 death of Joseph McCarthy . After assuming his seat, Proxmire did not pay the customary tribute to his predecessor and stated instead that McCarthy was a "disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America." Proxmire was reelected in 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976 and 1982; all but his 1964 win were by wide margins, including 71 percent of

9555-545: The staffs of the NSB office and the Office of the Inspector General , NSF's workforce includes some 200 scientists on temporary duty and 450 contract workers. Scientists from research institutions can join the NSF as temporary program directors, called "rotators", overseeing the merit review process and searching for new funding opportunities. These assignments typically last one–two years, but may extend to four. The NSF also offers contracting opportunities. As of May 2018,

9660-495: The vote in 1970, 73 percent in 1976 and 65 percent in 1982. In both of his last two campaigns, Proxmire refused contributions and spent less than $ 200 out of his own pocket, which covered the expenses related to filing re-election paperwork, and he mailed back unsolicited contributions. He was an early advocate of campaign finance reform . Throughout his Senate career, Proxmire also refused to accept reimbursements for travel expenses related to his official duties. Proxmire holds

9765-640: Was awarded in 1975 to the National Science Foundation for funding an $ 84,000 study on why people fall in love. Other Golden Fleece awards over the years were awarded to the Justice Department for conducting a study on why prisoners wanted to get out of jail, the National Institute of Mental Health to study a Peruvian brothel ("The researchers said they made repeated visits in the interests of accuracy," reported The New York Times ), and

9870-525: Was born in Lake Forest, Illinois , on November 11, 1915. He later used "William" rather than "Edward" out of admiration for actor William S. Hart . He graduated from The Hill School (in Pottstown, Pennsylvania ) in 1933, Yale University in 1938 ( B.A. ), Harvard Business School in 1940 ( M.B.A. ), and Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration in 1948 ( M.P.A. ). While at Yale, Proxmire joined

9975-613: Was both lauded and criticized for favoring the standards. In 1991 the NSFNET acceptable use policy was altered to allow commercial traffic. By 1995, with private, commercial market thriving, NSF decommissioned the NSFNET, allowing for public use of the Internet. In 1993 students and staff at the NSF-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, developed Mosaic ,

10080-546: Was created in 2022 to accelerate the transition of basic research into real world impact. It has a primary goal of the support of use-inspired research and the translation of research results to the market and society. Prior to October 2018, NSF maintained three overseas offices to promote collaboration between the science and engineering communities of the United States and other continents' scientific communities: All three overseas offices were shut down in October 2018, to reflect

10185-519: Was critical of the social sciences. It started a controversy about political bias and a Congressional Inquiry into federally sponsored research. In 2014, Republicans proposed a bill to limit the NSF Board's authority in grant-writing. William Proxmire Edward William Proxmire (November 11, 1915 – December 15, 2005) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party , he served as

10290-503: Was head of the campaign to cancel the American supersonic transport and particularly opposed to space exploration and ultimately to eliminate spending on such research from NASA 's budget. In response to a segment about space colonies run by the CBS program 60 Minutes , Proxmire stated that; "it's the best argument yet for chopping NASA's funding to the bone.... I say not a penny for this nutty fantasy." Proxmire introduced an amendment into

10395-421: Was not against a favorable vote on the legislation by the Banking Committee that would authorize the remainder of the Senate to consider the subject. He admitted that the committee was split in the opinions of its members. Days afterward, Proxmire told reporters that the labor bill's continued filibuster made the chances of the Senate acting on the legislation by the end of the month unlikely since unanimous consent

10500-477: Was not recalled or court-martialed, and in 2007, newly-declassified and released information exonerated Lavelle by showing that President Richard M. Nixon had authorized the bombing missions. In November 1973, after Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned, and Robert Bork took over as Acting Attorney General, Proxmire wrote in a letter that Bork was serving illegally as Acting Attorney General since 30 days had passed with him being in office and not having

10605-572: Was one of five Democrats to vote against Griffin Bell , President Jimmy Carter 's nominee for United States Attorney General . In January 1978, Carter wrote Proxmire on the responsibilities of New York City denizens in his plan to have the city avoid bankruptcy. In April, after New York Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jacob Javits introduced a Carter administration bill that would provide New York City with $ 2 billion in loan guarantees, Javits stated that he did not believe Proxmire would try killing

10710-481: Was promoted by Harley Kilgore. The bills called for the creation of a centralized science agency, but differed in governance and research supported. The second attempt, in 1947, included Senator H. Alexander Smith 's bill S. 526, and Senator Elbert Thomas 's bill S. 525. The Smith bill reflected ideas of Vannevar Bush, while the Thomas bill was identical to the previous year's compromise bill (S. 1850). After amendments,

10815-615: Was receiving for a couple of months began on February 22, 1972. His 1972 tax return which was published in the Congressional Record revealed that he paid $ 2,758 for his hair transplant and claimed the operation as a medical expense. Known for his devotion to personal fitness, which included jogging and push-ups , Proxmire earned the moniker "Push Up". In 1973, he published a book about staying in shape, entitled You Can Do It: Senator Proxmire's Exercise, Diet and Relaxation Plan . After leaving Congress, Proxmire had an office in

10920-484: Was required to end the filibuster. Later that month, along with Texas Republican John Tower and Utah Republican Jake Garn , Proxmire was one of the three senators voting against reporting out the bill authorizing $ 1.5 billion of long‐term loan guarantees for New York City. Proxmire added that he believed that the measure would pass through the Senate in a similar manner to the panel vote. In February 1978, after President Carter nominated G. William Miller for Chair of

11025-478: Was ultimately rejected by President Richard Nixon. William D. McElroy instead took over as the third director of the NSF in 1969. By 1968, the NSF budget had reached nearly $ 500 million. In 1972 the NSF took over management of twelve interdisciplinary materials research laboratories from the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). These university-based laboratories had taken

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