The former president of the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth has won a medal from the American Institute of Physics.
Falmouth resident and Harvard professor Dr. John Holdren was awarded the Karl Taylor Compton Medal for his leadership in science and public policy.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Dr. Holdren to learn more about his career and what the award means to him.
Gilda Geist This award is about using scientific knowledge and expertise to lead the world toward a better future. First, I want to focus on the science part. You're a physicist. What does that mean?
John Holdren Well, I did my PhD in plasma physics, which is the study of plasma—not in the sense of blood plasma, but in the sense of the fourth state of matter. The states of matter everybody knows are gas, solid and liquid, but the fourth state of matter is gas that's so hot that the electrons have been stripped off the ions. And it turns out that plasma is what 99 percent of the universe is made of, and that's particularly significant for many reasons, but one of them is that plasma physics is the key to harnessing fusion energy as an electricity source for society.
GG You've done a lot of your work in the public policy world, notably as chief science and technology advisor to former president Barack Obama. What is it like to be honored for this work by the American Institute of Physics at the same time when science is being devalued in the leadership and policymaking space now?
JH I'm spending, these days, about a third of my time just keeping track of the damage that President Trump and his administration are doing to science, technology and innovation, and therefore, the damage they're doing to the economic future of this country, public health, the environment [and] national security. All of those things depend on innovation in science and technology. And that's being smashed—there's no better word—being smashed by many of the actions of the Trump administration. President Obama said in his first cabinet meeting that our opportunities and challenges are so great and the resources of the federal government so limited that the only option is cooperation and partnerships. That insight has gone by the wayside in the Trump administration. I think we need to be strong. I think we need to keep talking about it. I think we need to let people know that science, it's a matter of economy, security, health [and] environment. If we want those things to be taken care of, we should be supportive of what some of us call the science and technology ecosystem—that is the combination of the federal government, universities, the private sector, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and the media all working together.
GG I was reading a little bit about how you got into science through some books you were reading as a kid. In those early years, did you envision science as being an important part of how you might help shape the world, or were you just interested in the science itself?
JH One of those books was called "The Two Cultures," and it was by a British engineer and philosopher named C.P. Snow. And his argument about the two cultures was that the world is increasingly divided between people who work in physical science and engineering and people who work in social science, humanities [and] the arts. And in C.P. Snow's view, the most important challenges facing the world sit in a gap between those two cultures. And his argument was, you need more people who are comfortable in both cultures, who know about science and engineering, but also who know about social science and humanities and the arts, to think about those big problems that cannot be understood, never mind solved, without drawing on the insights and the capabilities in both of those cultures. So, that fascinated me already as a junior in high school when I read those books, and it made me want to be part of the group that sat between the two cultures.
GG Is there anything else you wanted to add?
JH Science is not always a high profile, high visibility activity, and one really needs to be most interested in making progress and less interested in how much credit you're getting for it. It's a wonderful surprise when you do end up getting credit for it and awarded, and I'm very grateful for that. But I would have been happy to do all the things I've done just for the sake of getting them done.
