AASTA Description
Abstract:
The Arizona, Arts, Sciences and Technology Academy (AASTA) will be incorporated
in Fall 2004 to coalesce the cultural, scientific and technical wisdom of
Arizona and promote the growth of an intellectual community within the State.
AASTA will establish Arizona as a locus of leading influential thought, intellectual
enrichment, and creativity. AASTA will be nonpartisan and broadly based in
cultural, behavioral and social sciences, the arts and humanities, physical
and biological sciences, health sciences, administration, law and engineering
and may provide advisory services to government and other organizations.
Background:
The history of scholarly societies dates back well into the middle ages as
the greatest intellects of the time recognized that their appetites for knowledge
could not be completely satisfied by the pursuit of research in isolation,
but required the challenge of others as a driver. Even prior to this time,
such minds gravitated to centers of learning where libraries were constructed
and patrons were available to provide the environment necessary for growth.
Originally, scientific societies were the primary means of sharing knowledge
and encouraging acceptance of scientific theory. At the onset, these societies
were populated primarily by men of wealth who pursued scientific interests
in their spare time. The early societies were social institutions through
which members could gather, discuss new ideas, and test one another’s
work. They were generally open to all (with the understanding that only the
wealthy had the time to participate).
In the centuries that have followed, thousands of scholarly societies have
been created for similar purposes, but only a few have achieved an elite and
enduring status. By the mid-19th century, most of these societies were supplanted
by universities and direct state sponsorship of specific scientific disciplines.
The professionalization and specialization of science and its practitioners
helped to drive this change. Today virtually all such organizations, save
but a very few, function more as promotional guilds than as true intellectual
engines.
In the United States, the National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Arts
and Sciences, and the New York Academy of Sciences stand out as elite intellectual
communities. Many states have versions of an “Academy of Science”,
however these are largely dominated by mid level scientists seeking to expand
and improve upon science teaching. This focus is a necessary one, but it is
also one that concedes the highest intellectual turf to a small set of organizations
all located on the East Coast. In January 2004, Sen. Hutchinson announced
the creation of the Texas Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine led
by Nobel Laureates Smalley and Brown for the purpose of increasing the State’s
S&T competitiveness.
Arizona, as one of the last states to enter the Union, has for the past few
decades found itself performing in the middle tier of intellectual leadership.
In recent years, much more effort has been focused upon building a competitive
and diversified S&T capacity for the State. Each of the three state universities
has begun implementing paths towards differentiation and collaboration, and
the recent attraction of the IGC and TGen has signaled a new commitment and
approach to developing cutting edge research capacities among the State’s
civic leadership groups. The pace of investment and its associated recruitment/retention
efforts has become more focused. Yet, the national competitive landscape has
changed very little in relative terms. And while these efforts and the planning
that generated them are vital, they, in sum, comprise a strategy that is being
mimicked in several dozen other states and metropolitan areas. Thus, while
both noble and necessary, the end result and benefit is more likely to be
marginal, or excellence within a niche.
Many reports generated by policy institutes, economic development organizations,
the universities and others have pointed to the strengths that can be enhanced
and the gaps that must be filled in order for Arizona to sustain and improve
its competitive posture. While important and useful as tools to improve the
capacity of the State to train and innovate, the themes of these efforts have
remained somewhat constant over time, even as the language used within them
has evolved to reflect the most current economic thinking. In the final analysis,
although the efforts energized by these studies will result in improvements
to the State’s overall performance, the net effects have been and will
continue to be a “keeping up with the Jones’s” outcome set
vis-à-vis our neighboring states and the nation as a whole. While necessary,
these efforts simply constitute everyone’s ante into the S&T game
and thus are not by themselves pathways to exclusivity.
What is required to best enable a breakout transformational move for Arizona
is for the State to become an enduring nexus of broadly- based elite minds
by means of a vehicle that nourishes them. It is an old idea in principle,
but one that has a very timely application as a capstone to the commitments
that are already in place to push Arizona forward.
The opportunity exists in the coming decade for Arizona to emerge as a vibrant
globally influential intellectual force. By gathering and focusing a critical
mass of the keenest intellects resident in this State upon emerging and transcendent
issues of regional, national and global urgency, Arizona can become the magnet
for world class talent that it aspires to be by transforming itself into an
exporter of influence. This strategy is one that will truly set the State
apart from its many competitors and provide the critical leverage to a new
future for all of its citizens.
Much effort has been invested over recent years to build bridges of collaboration
among the research enterprises within Arizona. And with some degrees of success,
intellectual ties have formed among previously disparate colleagues in the
State to pursue new funding opportunities that will advance their research.
However, the drivers in all of these efforts have been focused solely upon
winning more and larger research contracts to fuel the growth and leverage
the attractiveness of the institutions where this work occurs, and to develop
portfolios of intellectual property that can be used to launch new ventures.
Intellectual enrichment and the making of any significant and recognized contribution
to Arizona society (while professed) are secondary and tertiary considerations
to building institutional capacity and fueling new start-ups. Yet the very
ambitions of the universities and efforts such as TGen and the IGC are inextricably
linked to the recruitment of a wide variety of world-class scholars and researchers.
The vibrant climate of a growing and robust intellectual core existing outside
but parallel to the university system is assumed but structurally absent.
Institutional investment by the State is growing, albeit slowly, and the universities
are using these funds to focus upon building strategic research capacities
in both infrastructure and talent. However, in spite of this investment and
the bridges of institutional cooperation that have been under construction
– the community of distinguished scholars and scientists in the State
will still find themselves tethered within bureaucracies that tend to channel
their talents towards the highest potential ROI rather than towards the highest
possible total benefit to the community.
Thus, there is an urgent need to create a venue where the best scientific,
technical and scholarly minds in the State can associate independently solely
for the furtherance of knowledge and the benefit of society. This venue would
be led and governed by the intellectual community itself addressing matters
of common interest and dedicated to the advancement of the State as a major
intellectual force.