Events

Task Force on American Innovation Webinar
Innovation in Crisis: Emerging from a Pandemic to Restore American Competitiveness

Date: March 12, 2021
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 EST

The Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI) invites you to a special briefing: Innovation in Crisis: Emerging from a Pandemic to Restore American Competitiveness.

The panel will feature senior leadership from industry and the broader academic community to make the case for increased funding for scientific research as an essential investment to ensure the long-term economic growth and security of the United States. Speakers Include:

• Dr. Sudip Parikh, CEO, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• John Neuffer, President and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)
• Dr. Dario Gil, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, IBM
• Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr., President, American Physical Society (APS)
• Barbara R. Snyder, President, Association of American Universities (AAU)
• Kathleen N. Kingscott, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, IBM Research
• Maryam Cope, Director of Government Affairs, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)
• Matt Hourihan, Director of R&D Budget and Policy Programs, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Thank you to our sponsors: IBM, SIA, TFAI

This is a widely-attended event and in compliance with congressional ethics.

Copyright@ 2021 Task Force on American Innovation, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Task Force on American Innovation
1101 K Street NW
Suite 450
Washington, DC 20005

Presentation:

The Federal R&D Deceleration in Context
Matt Hourihan, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

 

Date:

March 12, 2021

 

 

Panelists

Dr. Sudip Parikh 
CEO
American Association on Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Sudip Parikh, Ph.D., became the 19th chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals in January 2020. Parikh has spent two decades at the nexus of science, policy, and business.

Immediately prior to joining AAAS, Parikh was senior vice president and managing director at DIA Global, a neutral, multidisciplinary organization bringing together regulators, industry, academia, patients, and other stakeholders interested in healthcare product development. He led strategy in the Americas and oversaw DIA programs that catalyzed progress globally toward novel regulatory frameworks for advanced therapies not amenable to existing regulations.

An active member of the scientific advocacy community, Parikh serves as a board member and officer for several impactful organizations, including Research!America, Friends of Cancer Research, and ACT for NIH. He has received multiple public service awards, including recognition from the American Association of Immunologists, the National AIDS Alliance, the Coalition for Health Services Research, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Sudip is committed to early STEM education and, as a parent of three energetic young children, he prioritizes volunteering as a mentor for Science Olympiad teams at two elementary schools.

 

John Neuffer-Semiconductor Industry Association

John Neuffer
President and CEO
Semiconductor Industry Association

John Neuffer is President and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) where he’s responsible for setting and leading the association’s public policy agenda and serving as the primary advocate for maintaining U.S. leadership in semiconductor design, manufacturing, and research.

Prior to joining SIA, John served as Senior Vice President for Global Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), where he led ITI’s global team to expand market access opportunities for ITI member companies around the world. He directed all ITI’s global government relations in trade, cybersecurity, standards, regulatory, Internet governance, and privacy. John built strong relationships with foreign governments and industry associations in key global capitals, and advanced the high-tech industry’s trade agenda in Washington.

Before joining ITI, John served for over seven years at the Office of United States Trade Representative (USTR) in Washington, DC: two years as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Affairs, preceded by over five years as Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan.

 

Dr. Dario Gil
Senior Vice President and Director of Research
IBM

Dr. Darío Gil is Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research.

As a technology and business leader, Dr. Gil is responsible for IBM Research, one of the world’s largest and most influential corporate research labs, with over 3,000 researchers. He is the 12th Director in its 76-year history. Dr. Gil leads the technology roadmap and the technical community of IBM, directing innovation strategies in areas including hybrid cloud, AI, quantum computing, and exploratory science. He is also responsible for IBM’s intellectual property strategy and business.

Dr. Gil is a globally recognized leader of the quantum computing industry. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud.

An advocate of collaborative research models, Dr. Gil co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which advances fundamental AI research to the broad benefit of industry and society. He also co-chairs the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, which provides access to the world’s most powerful high-performance computing resources in support of COVID-19 research.

Dr. Gil is a member of the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a trustee of the New York Hall of Science.

Dr. Gil received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

 

Dr. Sylvester James Gates, Jr.
President
American Physical Society (APS)

Sylvester James “Jim” Gates, Jr. is an American theoretical physicist. He received two B.S. degrees and a Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the latter in 1977. His doctoral thesis was the first one at MIT to deal with supersymmetry. In 2017, Gates retired from the University of Maryland, and he is currently the Brown Theoretical Physics Center Director, Ford Foundation Professor of Physics, an Affiliate Mathematics Professor, and a Faculty Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies & Public Affairs at Brown University. He is known for his work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory.

Gates served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), contemporaneously on the Maryland State Board of Education from 2009-2016, and the National Commission on Forensic Science from 2013-2016. In 2019, he was invited to serve on the American Bar Association Steering Committee for the Annual Prescription for Criminal Justice and Forensic Science. In 2020, he began serving on the Board of Trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

He is a past president of the National Society of Black Physicists and is an NSBP Fellow, as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and previously the Institute of Physics in the U.K. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2013, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, becoming the first African-American theoretical physicist so recognized in its 150-year history. President Obama awarded Prof. Gates the 2011 National Medal of Science, the highest award given to scientists in the U.S., at a White House ceremony in 2013.

 

Barbara R. Snyder
President
Association of American Universities (AAU)

Barbara R. Snyder is President of the Association of American Universities. Prior to that, from 2007 to 2020, she served as President of Case Western Reserve University, where she encouraged interdisciplinary excellence, catalyzed institutional collaboration, and reinvigorated alumni engagement and fundraising.

Snyder began her academic career as an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve’s School of Law, then joined the faculty of Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. After serving in several leadership positions at Moritz and within the central university, Snyder became OSU’s Interim Executive Vice President and Provost in 2003 before securing the permanent position the following year. She graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, where she served as executive editor of its law review, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Ohio State.

 Snyder is a director of KeyCorp and Progressive Corporation. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Before coming to AAU, Snyder served as past chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education, past chair of the board of directors at the Business-Higher Education Forum, past vice chair of the board of trustees of Internet2, past director of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, past director of Jobs Ohio, past trustee of University Circle, Inc, and past member of the Ohio Business Roundtable. 

 

Kathleen Kingscott
Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
IBM

Kathleen Kingscott is Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for IBM Research.  She is responsible for developing collaborative research partnerships between IBM, industry, academia and government. Ms. Kingscott is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Innovation Policy Forum and is IBM’s alternate member of the Semiconductor Industry Association Board of Directors.  She chairs the CTO Work Group of the SIA. She is a member of the Board of Managers of the American Institute of Physics Publishing and is chair of the Compensation Committee for the AIPP Board. As co-chair of the Task Force on American Innovation, Ms. Kingscott leads a major coalition of companies, university and trade associations, and professional societies that supports federal investment in scientific research.

Previously, Kathleen held the IBM Industry Chair at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University. Other earlier roles include Director, Worldwide Innovation Policy for IBM with responsibility for worldwide public policy matters regarding innovation, science and technology and other public policy, Congressional relations, information technology marketing management positions in IBM. Kathleen formerly served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Electronics Division of the National Defense Industrial Association. She was a member of the Secretary of Commerce’s Manufacturing Council 2015-2016.

 

Maryam Cope
Director, Government Affairs
Semiconductor Industry Association

Maryam Cope is director of government affairs at SIA. In this role, Maryam works closely with industry, Congress, and the Administration to advance key legislative and regulatory priorities related to semiconductor research and technology, high-skilled immigration, and product security.

Maryam brings over a decade of technology policy and advocacy experience to SIA. Prior to SIA, she was managing partner for the technology practice at GoldsteinCope Policy Solutions. She also established the technology policy practice at the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Maryam also worked at the Information Technology Industry Council, where she led advocacy efforts in the areas of cybersecurity, encryption, and supply chain security.

Maryam began her career with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. As professional staff for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, she focused on innovation, cybersecurity, emerging technologies, and R&D, including the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act of 2010.

 

Matt Hourihan
Director, the R&D Budget and Policy Program
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Matt Hourihan is the director of the R&D Budget and Policy Program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where he is an expert on science budgets and a frequent speaker before academic, industry, government, and international audiences. His analyses have been featured in major media including the Wall Street Journal, Nature, The Atlantic, Forbes, The Hill, Politico, Scientific American, Eos, Vox, Bloomberg, and elsewhere. He has served in his current position since 2011.