[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-25476”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“title”:“”,“alt”:“Forbes”}}]]A critical component missing from the discussion of the looming fiscal cliff, says Dean of the Thayer School of Engineering Joseph Helble in a Forbes opinion piece, is “the potentially devastating long-term implications of deep cuts in federal research spending.

“If sequestration is enacted, research and development spending will be cut by 8.4 percent. Restricting reductions to non-defense discretionary spending, as some legislators have proposed, would cut non-defense R&D support by more than 9 percent, according to analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That would reduce research funding to a level not seen since 1999.”

Helble continues, “At a time when the president and corporate leaders are calling for more engineers, cuts in our nation’s long-term investment in the science and technology infrastructure would send the wrong message to our country’s engineering undergraduate and graduate students: We don’t need or value your talents.”

Read the full op-ed, published 12/19/12 by Forbes.