UMBC-UMB Partnership Symposium
April 12, 2017
BWTech@UMBC
It’s always an honor to join my friend, Pres. Hrabowski—and all of our colleagues at UMBC—to celebrate the partnership of our two universities and our eagerness to do together what we cannot do alone.
I thank all of the investigator teams for sharing their work—and for showing us just how much creativity there is in this science we undertake, how much is obdurate persistence, and how much is faith that the science will lead us where we need to go.
On behalf of my colleagues at UMB, I can tell you that I’m fully committed to deepening our connections to UMBC—to examining all the big challenges that need our common focus, and coming together aggressively around those opportunities.
And I’d ask something in return. As we look ahead to the March for Science in Washington, DC, I ask that—in your own way—you step outside your role as scientists, and engineers, and practitioners … and be advocates as well. I ask that you be advocates for science and truth, for smart and humane health policy.
I ask that you be advocates for all the people who need the fruits of the research we produce, but who don’t have a platform to persuade the powerful that this work is urgently important; that it matters; that it demands our respect and our careful cultivation.
If we believe we’re made better by national investments in knowledge and discovery, then we have an obligation to say so. And I can’t imagine anyone could say it more powerfully, more eloquently, than all of you.
So I thank you—not only for your work, but for your voice.
