Without federal support for curiosity-driven research, the innovation and talent pipeline that has helped ensure our nation’s prosperity and safety could run dry, warned President Sally Kornbluth during a Washington Post Live event. During "The Next Generation," a panel discussion moderated by Washington Post reporter Zachary Goldfarb at The Washington Post’s “Building America Summit,” Kornbluth and Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow joined forces for a spirited discussion on the importance of curiosity-driven research, examining how universities are preparing the next generation of scientists to lead in America’s rapidly changing technological landscape. “Many of the things we have in our everyday lives, whether they be medical advances, technological advances, a lot of these things came from 30, 40, 50 years of scientists just trying to figure out…

“It’s because the students are all coming with business experience and the demand out there in the field for them to have really strong AI knowledge is very high,” she said. The impact of frozen funds Federal funding fuels curiosity-driven research—the groundwork of medical, technological and countless scientific breakthroughs. “It is very difficult to make a groundbreaking discovery that’s going to revolutionize human life because you want to do that. You really have to be figuring out how things work and traditionally that sort of research in this country has been funded by the government because it does not have an immediate return,” said Kornbluth. Discussing issues with federal funding, Kornbluth said that although money has been appropriated for universities, it has not been released to them by and large. “We’re really trying to figure out what the funding strea…