Credit Where Credits Due

This month's cover story, "Changing Course ," discusses a topic of high importance to many ASEE members—research funding, specifically funding from the Department of Defense. Since the end of the Cold War, the reduction in DOD's overall budget has been mirrored by a reduction of more than 20 percent in the department's research budget.

Now, though, the tide seems to be turning. The nation's universities, scientific and engineering societies, and corporate representatives have worked hard in recent years to educate members of Congress and their staffs on the importance of DOD academic research funding to the nation's future defense readiness and economic well-being.

ASEE plays a leading role for the engineering community, representing the full range of academic engineering disciplines in our efforts. Through sponsorship of events on Capitol Hill, visits to members of Congress by members of ASEE's Engineering Deans Council, and steady attention to legislation in Congress, ASEE can claim a measure of credit for recent real increases in DOD funding of academic research. Basic research expenditures by DOD, for example, are slated to rise 14 percent in FY 2001, continuing a three-year trend of increases. Similarly, NSF's FY 2001 budget is scheduled to increase by 13.3 percent. ASEE will continue to work to maintain and increase the availability of funds in support of academic engineering research.

Also this month, we profile Ilene Busch-Vishniac, the sixth dean of the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. From 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Dean Ilene is on the go, from family to meetings and work, then back to family. A dean's life is full of challenges in "A Day in the Life of Dean Ilene." What would you like to read about in Prism? This is your magazine, and we want to hear from you.

Frank L. Huband
Executive Director and Publisher
f.huband@asee.org