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ASU experts lend answers, testimony to Capitol Hill issues


July 22, 2008

Policy-makers in Washington D.C. have been relying on ASU experts for answers and options on a number of pressing issues, ranging from space aeronautics to security and international sanctions.

“ASU’s rise in national prominence has had the positive benefit of being asked to be at the table as key issues of our time are being discussed and debated,” says Stuart Hadley, the university’s assistant vice president for policy affairs and executive director of federal relations. “ASU has seen a significant growth in the number of invitations being extended to provide expert testimony at various congressional hearings.”

According to Hadley, aside from the different ongoing communications between ASU and the state’s congressional delegation, congressional hearings are an excellent venue to showcase the university’s key areas of expertise.

Just how ASU is making an impact in Washington, D.C., is exemplified in the following hearings featuring university faculty and staff:

• On March 12, ASU’s vice president of global engagement, Anthony “Bud” Rock, testified before the House Science Committee on the issue of international science and technology collaboration.

• On April 8, associate professor Orde F. Kittre from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law testified before the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing involving Iranian sanctions.

• On April 24, associate professor of biodesign Cheryl Nickerson testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics at a hearing about the international space station.

• On April 24, associate instructional professor Patty Ferguson-Bohnee from the College of Law testified before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the topic of “federal acknowledgment process.”

• On April 30, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Eric Williams from the ASU School of Sustainability testified before the House Science Committee at a hearing titled “E-Waste: Can the Nation Handle Modern Refuse in the Digital Age?”

• On July 10, associate professor Jay Golden from the ASU School of Sustainability testified before the House Select Committee on energy Independence and Global warming.  Golden is the Director of the Center on SMART Innovations for Urban Climate and Energy. His testimony focused on heat waves, the urban heat island effect and their relationship to electricity deliver. 

Late last year, Regents’ Professor Robert Cialdini and Adrian Sannier, vice president of ASU’s University Technology Office, also testified before the House Science Committee on issues involving social sciences’ role in the energy challenge, and the role of technology in reducing illegal file sharing.