This week, NSF Director Panchanathan had the honor of hosting First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at NSF headquarters. The visit began with the director, prime minister and first lady - renowned for her commitment to community colleges - listening to and engaging in presentations by students from community colleges and four-year institutions demonstrating their research.
Afterward, alongside students and industry and academia representatives, the three explored how career-connected learning initiatives and workforce training programs and partnerships between high schools, community colleges, and universities with employers are shaping the workforce of tomorrow.
Through the support of the White House, made possible by the "CHIPS and Science Act," even more NSF programs - like the Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies and the Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics programs - are bringing down barriers and opening opportunities for all to participate in the STEM enterprise.
Director Panchanathan continues to foster collaboration across federal agencies, industry, international partners and others at events such as Prime Minister Modi's arrival ceremony and State Dinner at the White House; a roundtable with tech CEOs on innovation in a shared technology ecosystem hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; and a luncheon at the Department of State.
When governments, industry and academia create linkages between research and education programs - such as the research agency partnerships between NSF and two Indian science funding agencies and the NSF-Micron partnership supporting education and workforce development - we draw together our collective strength to supercharge progress and unleash our nation's full scientific and industrial capacities.
