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Adam Frank

Adam Frank is an American astrophysicist and science communicator, holding the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professorship in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the . His research centers on , with a focus on hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of , particularly the final stages of stars similar to , as well as gas dynamics in astrophysical environments. Frank has authored several books that bridge technical with broader existential questions, including About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the , Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the , and The Little Book of Aliens, the latter examining evidence for through empirical lenses like the . For his efforts in science communication, he received the Medal and the American Physical Society's Joseph Burton Forum Award in 2020. As a co-founder of NPR's 13.7: and Culture blog and contributor to outlets like and , Frank advocates for rigorous, data-driven discussions on topics ranging from to humanity's technological footprint on .

Early Life and Education

Childhood and Formative Influences

Adam Frank grew up in , during the 1970s in a predominantly and blue-collar community near , characterized by post-immigration diversity and industrial grit. As the only Jewish child in his school from an atheist family—whose served as a civil rights leader and the state's sole African American legislator at the time—he navigated anti-Semitism and racial tensions, often through physical confrontations in a tough neighborhood environment. These experiences fostered an innate wariness of unsubstantiated claims and scams prevalent in his surroundings, a trait that later underpinned his scientific rigor. His fascination with astronomy emerged at age five, ignited by his father's collection of pulp magazines and books depicting spaceships, moons, and aliens, which he accessed late at night in the family library. This early exposure extended to reruns of , low-budget sci-fi films, and documentaries, cultivating an obsession with ; by childhood, he could recite the to four decimal places. Trips to Manhattan's Hayden Planetarium further deepened this passion, transforming abstract cosmic wonders into tangible pursuits. A defining formative event occurred around age eleven when Frank encountered Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods?, a pseudoscientific work alleging ancient alien visitations, only for a NOVA documentary to dismantle its claims through empirical scrutiny. This episode crystallized the necessity of and evidence in discerning truth from speculation, a principle he credits with shaping his approach to amid New Jersey's culture of hustles and half-truths.

Academic Training and Degrees

Frank earned his undergraduate degree from the . He subsequently pursued graduate studies in physics at the , obtaining a in 1990 and a in 1992. His doctoral research focused on astrophysical topics, aligning with his later specialization in and .

Professional Career

Academic Positions and Appointments

Frank earned his PhD in physics from the in 1992. Following his doctorate, he held postdoctoral and visiting scientist positions at in the and the . In 1995, he received a Hubble Fellowship, supporting advanced research in . In 1996, Frank joined the as an in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He was promoted to in 2000 and to full Professor in 2004. He currently holds the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professorship in the department. Frank also maintains a joint appointment at the 's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), where he serves as a Distinguished Scientist. In 2005, he was awarded a University Bridging Fellowship to support interdisciplinary research initiatives.

Research Leadership and Collaborations

Frank serves as the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the , where he leads a computational research group specializing in the hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic processes governing and the final evolutionary stages of stars like . His team's work emphasizes large-scale numerical simulations to model phenomena such as bipolar outflows from planetary nebulae and jets from young stellar objects. The group has developed AstroBEAR, an adaptive mesh refinement code for multidimensional magnetohydrodynamic flows, which is publicly available and applied to simulations of stellar , atmospheres, and . In addition to his professorial role, Frank holds a joint appointment as a distinguished scientist at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), an inertial confinement fusion facility, enabling interdisciplinary integration of plasma physics with astrophysical modeling. This leadership extends to federally funded projects supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Department of Energy, which have sustained his group's supercomputer-based investigations for nearly three decades. Frank's collaborations bridge and . With LLE colleagues, he explores high-energy density plasmas relevant to astrophysical contexts, including magnetic diffusion in interstellar clouds and solar flux tubes. In , he partnered with Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's , to co-author the 2018 "Silurian Hypothesis" paper, which evaluates geological signatures that could detect hypothetical pre-human industrial civilizations on , informing searches for technosignatures elsewhere. These efforts extend to modeling co-evolutionary dynamics between planetary systems and energy-intensive civilizations, drawing on and .

Scientific Contributions

Computational Astrophysics and Stellar Dynamics

Frank's contributions to emphasize numerical simulations of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic phenomena in stellar contexts, particularly the dynamics of outflows, jets, and winds during and the phase of . His research employs multidimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamic codes to model the interaction of stellar with circumstellar environments, revealing mechanisms for outflow collimation and morphological diversity in planetary nebulae. These simulations incorporate , , and thermal instabilities to predict observable structures, such as bipolar lobes and toroidal components, validated against multi-wavelength observations. A key focus has been on young stellar objects, where Frank's hydrodynamical models demonstrate how ambient and disk-star interactions drive the collimation of outflows into highly focused jets, with opening angles as narrow as 10-20 degrees in simulated cases. For evolved stars, his group's work on proto-planetary nebulae explores fast wind-slow envelope interactions, producing asymmetric morphologies through hydrodynamic instabilities like Rayleigh-Taylor modes, as evidenced in 3D simulations of systems like L2 . These efforts highlight the role of and injection from central engines in shaping nebular , with implications for understanding mass-loss rates in intermediate-mass stars (1-8 solar masses). In , Frank has advanced studies of interactions via 3D hydrodynamical simulations of common evolution, a critical where a engulfs its companion, leading to rapid and potential progenitors. His models quantify recombination-driven energy sources and ionization fronts during ejection, showing that and drag forces can eject envelopes in timescales of 10-100 years for systems with initial separations under 100 solar radii. Collaborations have integrated these simulations with observational data from imaging, confirming predictions of non-spherical ejection and jet-induced asymmetries in post-common- remnants. This computational framework has refined population synthesis models, estimating common efficiency parameters between 0.5 and 2.0 based on merger rates.

Astrobiological Investigations

Adam Frank has contributed to through investigations into , the evolution of biospheres, and the detectability of . His research emphasizes empirical constraints from observations to assess the prevalence of life and civilizations in the galaxy. In collaboration with Woodruff , Frank revised the in 2016 to incorporate data from surveys, estimating the probability that humanity is the only technological civilization in the . Their analysis suggested that if even a single technological species has arisen anywhere, the odds of others existing are over 10 billion to one, based on Kepler mission data indicating billions of potentially habitable worlds in the . This reformulation shifted focus from speculative parameters to observational limits, arguing against the notion of cosmic loneliness unless the emergence of technology is extraordinarily rare. (Note: for the paper, assuming from context) Frank's work on atmospheres explores biosignatures and technosignatures, including the detectability of chlorofluorocarbons (s) as industrial pollutants on habitable planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. A 2022 study co-authored by Frank modeled spectral features, concluding they could be observable with future telescopes like the if present at Earth-like concentrations, providing potential evidence of technology. He has examined the long-term of exo-civilizations and their planetary impacts, proposing that advanced societies could alter global environments through energy use and , potentially leaving detectable feedback loops in planetary climates. In a paper, and used statistics to bound the rarity of , suggesting that simple might be common but intelligent requires specific planetary conditions. Frank advocates for technosignatures as more persistent and detectable than transient radio signals, arguing in 2022 that artifacts like swarms or atmospheric pollutants could outlast civilizations by billions of years, making them preferable targets for searches given the galaxy's age. This perspective, developed in collaboration with researchers, posits that industrial activity on Earth-like worlds could be empirically tested via . Additional inquiries include hypotheses, with Frank proposing in recent analyses that life on originated from Mars via meteorites, supported by geological evidence of ancient Martian . He has also framed as a planetary-scale process, where collective knowledge emerges from biosphere-technosphere interactions, influencing assessments.

Recent Research on Planetary Systems

Frank's recent investigations into planetary systems emphasize the integration of astrophysical modeling with astrobiological principles to assess and detectability of or technology on . Building on exoplanet surveys that have identified over 5,000 confirmed worlds as of 2024, his work examines how planetary atmospheres and biospheric processes could reveal signatures of complex or civilizations. This includes modeling feedback mechanisms that maintain planetary equilibrium, akin to Earth's , extended to alien environments. In a , and collaborators revisited the Daisyworld model—a simplified framework for planetary self-regulation through biological feedbacks—adapting it to contexts via an informational lens. The "Exo-Daisy World" framework posits that biospheres on diverse could employ information processing to stabilize surface temperatures against stellar variations, potentially observable through atmospheric disequilibria. Simulations demonstrate that such systems achieve over orbital forcings differing from Earth's, with implications for interpreting spectra from telescopes like the . Frank's 2023 research with Amedeo Balbi addressed the "oxygen bottleneck" for technospheres, arguing that industrial-scale civilizations require atmospheric oxygen partial pressures of at least 18% to sustain combustion-based technologies, far exceeding levels in pre-industrial (~10-12%). This threshold, derived from thermodynamic constraints on fire and metallurgy, suggests that exoplanet biosignatures indicating high oxygen—such as layers or oxidant abundances—could proxy for technological activity rather than mere . The analysis draws on 's record and predicts that such signatures would persist for geologically significant timescales, aiding searches amid the ~4,000 known s with potential zones. Complementing this, a paper co-authored with Manasvi and Amedeo Balbi quantified planetary-scale information transmission as a hallmark of advanced s or technospheres. By estimating global communication rates—Earth's transmits ~10^{15}-10^{17} bits per second via biochemical signals, while the human technosphere exceeds 10^{21} bits—the study proposes these as detectable via anomalous energy fluxes or spectral lines in observations. Limits arise from physical channels like atmospheric and constraints, implying that mature planetary systems might exhibit scalable information hierarchies observable remotely. These efforts align with Frank's advocacy for searches over traditional biosignatures, positing in 2022 that artificial pollutants or industrial gases (e.g., chlorofluorocarbons) could be more unambiguous and long-lived than biological markers, given their and non-equilibrium . This perspective informed recommendations in the 2020 Astronomy and Decadal Survey, urging dedicated surveys of ~100 nearby exoplanets for such signals using upcoming missions. Overall, Frank's contributions underscore causal links between planetary , , and emergent complexity, challenging assumptions that Earth-like conditions are prerequisites for detectable .

Public Outreach and Writing

Non-Fiction Books

Adam Frank has authored and co-authored several non-fiction books that integrate with broader philosophical and cultural questions. His works often challenge conventional scientific narratives while grounding arguments in from and . The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Debate, published by in 2009, examines the persistent human pursuit of meaning through both scientific and lenses, drawing on historical examples from ancient rituals to modern to argue against a strict dichotomy between the two domains. About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang, released by Free Press on September 27, 2011, traces humanity's evolving understanding of time from ancient sundials to quantum mechanics and relativistic physics, critiquing overreliance on the Big Bang model and exploring its cultural ramifications. Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth, published by W. W. Norton & Company on June 12, 2018, applies astrobiological principles to assess the detectability of advanced civilizations via technosignatures, linking these to Earth's own technological impacts on planetary atmospheres and warning of potential self-induced existential risks akin to those inferred from exoplanet studies. The Little Book of Aliens, issued by on October 24, 2023, provides an accessible overview of the search for , covering topics from feasibility to the and empirical constraints on alien life detection, emphasizing data-driven over speculative enthusiasm. Wait, adjust url. The co-authored The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience (with and ), published by on March 5, 2024, contends that modern overlooks the subjective foundations of scientific practice, advocating for an integration of phenomenological insights to address limitations in objective methodologies.

Media Contributions and Commentary

Frank co-founded and contributed to NPR's 13.7: Cosmos and Culture from 2010 to 2018, where he and collaborators explored intersections of , , , and human identity, producing over 1,000 posts on topics including , death, and cultural narratives. The blog emphasized 's role in reworking notions of and societal change, with Frank authoring pieces on astrophysical perspectives like and existential questions. He has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, including "Welcome to the Age of Denial" on August 21, 2013, critiquing societal rejection of scientific facts; "Is a Climate Disaster Inevitable?" on January 17, 2015, assessing planetary sustainability through astrophysical analogies; and "Why Young Men Are Losing Faith in Science" on October 3, 2025, analyzing cultural factors in science skepticism among youth. Frank has also written for The Washington Post, addressing astrophysics and environmental dynamics, and contributed to The Atlantic and Big Think's 13.8 blog on cosmic and technological themes. In broadcast and podcast media, Frank appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience episode 1130 on June 12, 2018, discussing and searches; Podcast episode 455 on December 22, 2024, focusing on alien civilizations; Sean Carroll's Mindscape episode 259 on December 11, 2023, on possibilities and UFO skepticism; and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard on September 1, 2024, covering exoplanets and scientific inquiry. These appearances highlight his role in translating complex concepts for broad audiences, often emphasizing empirical constraints on speculative claims like advanced .

Speaking Engagements and Interviews

Adam Frank has delivered public lectures and keynotes focusing on , the search for , and the astrobiological implications of planetary climate dynamics. In April 2024, he spoke on recent empirical estimates for terms in the at the Rochester Academy of Science Annual Spring Lecture, held at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Carlson Center for Imaging Science. On November 2, 2009, Frank presented "The Constant Fire: Beyond the vs. Religion Debate" at TEDx, arguing that connects to broader cultural and existential dimensions of human experience. As a , addressed "Light of the Stars: Seeing and the Human Future in Our Universe Awash in Worlds" at SUNY Geneseo's Great Day event on April 28, 2021, framing climate impacts through the lens of potential exo-civilizations' planetary feedbacks. His lectures often integrate with philosophical inquiries into life's prevalence, emphasizing data-driven constraints on the . Frank frequently appears in interviews and podcasts discussing these themes. In a December 2024 episode of the , he explored alien civilizations, star system evolution, and techno-signatures. On September 1, 2024, he discussed his book The Little Book of Aliens on the podcast with , covering searches and scientific methodologies. Earlier, around the 2018 release of Light of the Stars, Frank interviewed with , examining how industrial civilizations might alter planetary atmospheres detectably across interstellar distances. As an commentator since the 2010s, Frank has contributed to discussions on , cosmic perspectives on human issues, and critiques of unsubstantiated claims, such as in a 2018 segment with on exo-civilizations. He has also appeared on to interpret images of star-forming regions like the in 2022, linking observations to stellar life cycles and potential habitability zones. These engagements underscore his role in bridging academic research with public discourse on astrophysical and astrobiological frontiers.

Intellectual Perspectives

Views on the Anthropocene and Climate Dynamics

Adam Frank frames the as a planetary transition driven by technological civilizations, analogous to evolutionary shifts in Earth's history, such as the around 2.4 billion years ago when oxygen-producing bacteria fundamentally altered the atmosphere. In this view, human energy harvesting—totaling approximately 100 billion megawatt hours annually and emitting 36 billion tons of CO2—represents an "agency-dominated " where intelligent life imposes new thermodynamic disequilibria on the planet, potentially marking a universal stage for advanced species rather than a uniquely human anomaly. In a 2017 paper co-authored with Woodruff T. III, classifies during the as a "hybrid ," a transitional state between biologically dominated systems and those where technological agency drives generation and dissipation, synchronized with ecological changes like global . This astrobiological classification scheme, based on and stellar forcing, posits the as a predictable outcome for habitable worlds hosting energy-intensive , with implications for detecting technosignatures— planetary alterations—in studies. argues that such hybridization introduces novel evolutionary pressures, enhancing planetary dissipation but risking nonlinear dynamics like overshoot. Regarding climate dynamics, Frank contends that rapid energy extraction by technological societies inevitably triggers atmospheric changes, as modeled in simulations showing potential trajectories of die-off, steady-state , or even after shifting to low-impact sources like . He rejects , asserting in a 2015 New York Times op-ed that while civilizations may face crises—potentially explaining the —human agency allows steering toward co-evolutionary stability rather than inevitable doom. Nonetheless, he warns that unchecked from fossil fuels could lead to 90% population losses in worst-case models, emphasizing the need for proactive energy transitions informed by . Frank underscores Earth's resilience, citing historical precedents like the planet's recovery from "" phases 700 million years ago or hothouse conditions 55 million years ago, where microbial life reconfigured atmospheres over geological timescales. In his 2018 book Light of the Stars and related commentary, he maintains that the planet will endure human-induced perturbations, but human civilization's long-term viability hinges on achieving practices within the , lest it join hypothetical alien failures. This perspective critiques denialism while urging realism: climate alteration is a of progress, demanding adaptive governance to avoid self-inflicted collapse.

Skepticism Toward Extraterrestrial Claims

Adam Frank, an astrophysicist engaged in the search for (SETI), has consistently advocated for rigorous scientific standards in evaluating claims of extraterrestrial visitations, particularly those linked to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified anomalous phenomena (s). He distinguishes between the legitimate pursuit of biosignatures and technosignatures—detectable signs of or technology on exoplanets via telescopes—and unsubstantiated anecdotal reports, which he argues fail to provide verifiable evidence of presence on . Frank's position underscores that while microbial or distant intelligent remains plausible given the vast number of potentially habitable worlds, claims of nearby extraterrestrial craft or biologics demand multi-sensor, reproducible data absent in most UAP cases. In a May 2021 New York Times opinion piece responding to a U.S. government report, critiqued the featured evidence, including pilot testimonies and video footage, as insufficient for linking sightings to extraterrestrials. He highlighted that first-person accounts are "notoriously inaccurate," often relying on vague descriptors like "it looked close" without precise measurements from , , or multiple viewpoints. Video analyses, he noted, yield "mixed at best" results for claimed anomalous accelerations, with some attributable to camera artifacts rather than physics-defying . "Scientifically speaking, there is little to warrant that connection," concluded, emphasizing that no data demonstrates violations of known physics or meets the threshold for extraordinary claims. Frank has further argued that UFO enthusiasm has historically damaged SETI's credibility, fostering a "giggle factor" that linked serious to fringe narratives and nearly stifled . In an April 2024 Aeon essay, he traced this to events like the 1947 , where initial reports of a crashed evolved into convoluted tales involving hoaxes, unreliable witnesses, and government cover-up myths, eroding trust in extraterrestrial research. He contrasts this with SETI's evidence-based methods, such as NASA's 2019 grants for atmospheric detection, which employ frameworks to rule out false positives—like those developed by collaborator Manasvi —prioritizing telescope observations over unverified sightings. UFO associations, Frank contends, diverted resources and public attention from scalable, empirical searches capable of probing billions of stars. Addressing more recent developments, dismissed November 2024 U.S. congressional testimony alleging non-human biologics and craft recoveries as part of an "endless loop" of lacking hard . Despite witnesses' claims of retrieved materials and entities, he pointed out the absence of artifacts, peer-reviewed data, or explanations for why such proof evades modern surveillance like smartphones and satellites. "Lots of stories," he summarized, echoing Carl Sagan's dictum that "," and questioned the persistence of blurry or narrative-based reports amid technological ubiquity. supports structured investigations, such as NASA's panel and Avi Loeb's for instrumental data collection, but warns against premature conclusions that could further marginalize . In broader commentary, Frank applies skepticism to popularized depictions of extraterrestrials as humanoid visitors, viewing them as anthropocentric projections unsupported by or observational data. He advocates focusing on non-anthropomorphic possibilities, like microbial mats or industrial pollutants in atmospheres, detectable via instruments such as the , rather than Earth-centric visitation hypotheses. This stance aligns with his work on the and habitability, where he stresses probabilistic reasoning over credulity toward unverified anomalies.

Critiques of Scientific and Cultural Narratives

Adam Frank has critiqued as a philosophical overreach that conflates the empirical method of with a comprehensive capable of addressing all human questions, including those of meaning, , and . He defines as an excessive faith in 's methods extending beyond their domain, often promoting a detached "God's-eye view" of that dismisses non-scientific forms of . In a 2013 NPR commentary, Frank distinguished 's transformative power—evident in centuries of technological advancement—from 's dangers, such as its historical misuse in justifying or by cloaking ideological agendas in scientific authority. He argues that this overreach fosters cultural polarization, reducing complex debates on or to reductive explanations and eroding 's credibility when it fails to deliver philosophical certainty. A core element of Frank's critique involves science's "blind spot" in neglecting lived human experience, which he posits as foundational yet systematically ignored in favor of objective . In a 2019 essay, he contends that scientific —combining with the reduction of all phenomena to physical processes—fails to account for subjective , , or the temporal flow of personal experience, as exemplified by unresolved debates in quantum interpretations like QBism, which emphasize observer agency. Frank traces this oversight to historical tensions, such as the 1922 Einstein-Bergson debate on time, where physical measurements overshadowed experiential duration, rendering pursuits like the "First Cause" of the philosophically incoherent without integrating subjectivity. He warns that this narrative prioritizes measurable data over irreducible human reality, limiting science's explanatory power and inviting philosophical backlash. Frank extends his analysis to cultural narratives surrounding , highlighting paradoxes in modern denialism where skeptics leverage scientific tools—like imagery—to undermine institutional expertise, as seen in dismissals of astrophysicists' findings. In a 2025 New York Times opinion piece, he attributes declining trust among young men to "manosphere" influencers who reframe as a combative arena of hidden elites and conspiracies, such as fabricated landings or data manipulation, appealing to competitive instincts while portraying as adversaries rather than rigorous inquirers. Frank critiques this cultural dynamic as exacerbating 's politicization, urging a return to emphasizing empirical hard work over triumphant narratives that alienate potential adherents. He views scientific —manifest in overconfident claims eroding public faith—as a , compounded by failures to engage broader experiential and cultural contexts.

Recognition and Influence

Awards and Honors

Frank received the Hubble Fellowship in 1995 for his postdoctoral research in . In 1997, he was awarded the , supporting his early faculty research and education initiatives at the . For his writing, Frank earned the American Astronomical Society's Division Popular Writing Award in 1999. In recognition of his public communication efforts, he received the American Physical Society's Joseph A. Burton Forum Award in 2020 and the American Association of Physics Teachers' Klopsteg Memorial Award in the same year. Frank was awarded the 2021 Medal for Excellence in Public Communication by the American Astronomical Society's Division for , honoring his contributions to explaining and to broad audiences. In 2024, his essay "The Coming Second " won the Essay Competition, sharing a $25,000 prize for advancing philosophical inquiry into human futures and planetary systems.

Impact on Policy and Public Discourse

Frank's writings and media appearances have shaped public discourse on by advocating a reframing of the issue as an inevitable outcome of industrial civilization's rather than a moral or ideological failing, emphasizing empirical planetary responses over blame attribution. In a 2018 New York Times , he argued that Earth's demonstrates resilience to human-induced perturbations, but human societies face existential risks from unchecked climate dynamics, drawing on astrobiological models to underscore the universality of such challenges for technological species. This perspective, echoed in his book Light of the Stars (2018), has influenced discussions by promoting a "project of civilization" view that prioritizes adaptive strategies and over partisan recriminations. His contributions from 2012 to 2018, including over 500 blog posts on the 13.7: and Culture platform, critiqued both exaggerated alarmism and denialism in climate narratives, urging audiences to focus on verifiable geophysical data and historical precedents like past mass extinctions. For instance, in analyzing events like in 2012, Frank highlighted probabilistic attributions of human influence—such as IPCC estimates that anthropogenic factors doubled risks—while cautioning against overconfident causal claims that erode public trust. These interventions have contributed to a more nuanced public conversation, as evidenced by citations in outlets like framing climate risks through exocivilizational sustainability lenses. On extraterrestrial intelligence and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), Frank's skeptical commentary has tempered sensationalism in policy-adjacent debates, particularly following 2024 U.S. congressional hearings where witnesses alleged non-human origins for UAPs. He described such testimonies as perpetuating an "endless loop" of unsubstantiated anecdotes lacking empirical rigor, advocating instead for systematic scientific protocols in government investigations to prioritize data over narrative. This stance aligns with his broader critiques of cultural narratives that conflate speculation with evidence, influencing discourse by reinforcing demands for verifiable standards in policy responses to potential technosignatures. While Frank has not directly testified before policymakers or drafted specific legislation, his 2016 compilation of questions for U.S. presidential candidates—including queries on environmental tech policy and —has informed for evidence-based governance in domains. His emphasis on sustained federal investment in , as articulated in 2025 statements, underscores indirect policy influence through support for agencies like and NSF, which fund and modeling critical to long-term planetary stewardship.

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