Washington, DC, June 17, 2003 — The American Sociological Association sponsored two highly successful science poster exhibits by sociologists Guillermina (Willie) Jasso and Doug Massey ($9-million New Immigrant Survey), and Mansoor Moaddel (Islamic peoples' public attitudes) on Capitol Hill. They exhibited their research at a popular exhibition in the Rayburn House Office Building to which members of Congress and their staff were invited to see some of the fruits of National Science Foundation-supported (NSF) basic research.

Pictured left to right: Sally T. Hillsman, ASA Executive Officer; Rick Lempert, NSF Division Director for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences; and CNSF presenters Willie Jasso and Doug Massey.

Massey (University of Pennsylvania), Jasso (New York University), and Moaddel (Eastern Michigan University) and their two separate projects were among the 30 total exhibits, which displayed the range of NSF projects—from Anthropology, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Math, Physics, Psychology, etc., to Zoology—at the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) reception. The two ASA booths received a tremendous amount of traffic.

The CNSF Exhibition/Reception is held each year on Capitol Hill. This year’s event was very successful, attracting nearly 300 people, including several congresspersons and their staff, congressional science committee staff, and other top government officials, (e.g., the director of the NSF, White House science advisor’s staff), who discussed the researchers’ work. CNSF (comprised of approximately 80 science organizations) each year advocates for increased funding for NSF from Congress to support the sciences and engineering as well as related education. CNSF is primarily organizations in the life, physical, and social, and behavioral sciences.

Pictured: Congressman Dale Kildee (left) of Michigan visits with sociologist Mansoor Moaddel.

Congressmen, the NSF director and deputy director, senior staff of the House Science Committee, a veteran Science magazine reporter, and numerous other notables talked at length with both Jasso/Massey and Moaddel. For the complete listing of posters, see the CNSF website.

Among the attendees were eight Members of Congress: Kildee (D-MI), Kolbe (R-AZ), Price (D-NC), Balance (D-NC), Ehlers (R-MI), Coble (R-NC), Capps (D-CA), and McIntyre (D-NC). Two congressmen and several other key individuals stopped by the ASA booths and discussed sociological research with Moaddel and/or Massey and Jasso. These included David Vandivier, Director of Strategic Planning & Outreach of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget; U.S. House Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI); U.S. House Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI); Rita Colwell, National Science Foundation Director; Joseph Bordogna, NSF Deputy Director; Kathie Olsen, Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP); Amy Flatten, OSTP; David Goldston, Chief of Staff of the House Committee on Science; Daraka Satcher, Legislative Assistant to Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); Lisa Pineles, Staff Assistant to Congressman John Dingell (D-MI). Congressman Ehlers spent a lot of time at the sociology booths, as did Olsen and Kildee.

Pictured at left: National Science Foundation Director Rita Colwell (left) with sociologist Mansoor Moaddel. Pictured at right above: Doug Massey (left) with Joseph Bordogna, Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation.