Research Library

Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar and University Professor Moshe Vardi analyzes three recent crises — the 2021 winter storm in Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Boeing 737 Max software failure — that highlight the cost of valuing efficiency over resilience and provide lessons for bringing society into balance.

University Professor Moshe Vardi condemns the actions taken by the U.S. government to restrict the immigration of technical workers into the country but also questions why the U.S. has become so dependent on international students as the major workforce for its academic science and engineering research enterprise. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/3llmHg2

In the second of a series of blogs on the coronovirus outbreak, the authors sound a note of cautious optimism: "We hope for a relatively optimistic outlook for the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, with the quick realization of all modifying interventions: earlier and broader testing, strict preventive hygienic and societal measures, a safe and effective vaccine, and effective therapies to treat the virus."  Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

The COVID-19 outbreak has now reached pandemic proportions, threatening the health of millions worldwide and adversely affecting the international economy. Understanding the status of COVID-19, its potential impact in the U.S., and the needed preventive measures could save many lives.

Mexico initiated a series of structural reforms in 2013, including major changes to policies governing telecommunications. Nonresident scholar Clara Luz Álvarez explores the implications of a recent ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court on one of the related laws passed by Congress in a blog post for the Baker Institute Blog.

In a recent commentary, Baker Institute science and technology policy experts described two international court cases that aimed to define “research” — and that ultimately arrived at two different answers. “What makes this interesting is that the courts’ definition of ‘research’ was based on politics — what the court wanted the end result to be,” said Kirstin Matthews, the institute’s fellow in science and technology policy. To reach a decision prohibiting human embryonic stem cell (hESC) patents, the EU court ruled that “research” occurs in a continuum. To reach a decision supporting federal funding of stem cell research, the U.S. court ruled that “research” involves a specific project.