Stephan contributes to prestigious panels
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

Noted labor economist Paula Stephan, professor of economics, was asked this year to serve on the study panels of two influential research and policy organizations. In July she began to work on a panel for the National Academies of Science Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy called together to study the Policy Implications of International Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in the United States. It is the fifth NAS committee she has served on.

She was asked to join the European Commission High Level Expert Group on Maximizing the Wider Benefits of Competitive Basic Research Funding at the European Level. In recent years, Stephan has served on several National Science Foundation Advisory Committees and several National Research Council committees, and has participated in the National Bureau of Economic Research Science and Engineering Workforce Project.

“Both the EC and the NAS have a tradition of bringing expert committees together to study issues of policy concern,” says Stephan, who is recognized for her expertise regarding the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States and how it is funded. “The groups take a body of research and write a policy report that will get a lot of play in its relevant community. The committees are composed of scientists and engineers, as well as individuals like myself, who study the functioning of the science and engineering enterprise.”

“There are a lot of stakeholders who are terribly interested in these issues,” she says.

Stephan says her participation also enhances her teaching. “It is wonderful to interact with experts from around the world in all areas – industry as well as academic. It helps me bring interesting perspectives back to the classroom as well as to my own research.”

The NAS panel is taking a broad look at the impact of foreign graduate and Ph.D. students in U.S. schools. Stephan is one of 16 science and policy experts on the NAS panel that will write a report to help guide national policy. The goal is to find ways to recruit the best domestic and international talent, assuring that all top students interested in science and engineering are encouraged to pursue these careers. The panel’s findings will be distributed in April 2005.

Stephan’s research interests include the process by which knowledge moves across institutional boundaries. She investigates technology transfer and the contributions of immigrant scientists to the U.S. Her articles have been published in Science, The American Economic Review and other prestigious publications, and she is quoted extensively, most recently in a story published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Is There a Science Crisis? Maybe Not” (July 9, 2004).