Assuring the U.S. Department of Defense a Strong Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce

Assuring the U.S. Department of Defense a Strong Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce

  • Publisher: National Academies Press
  • ISBN: 9780309262132
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780309262149
  • eISBN Epub: 9780309262163
  • Place of publication:  United States
  • Year of digital publication: 2012
  • Month: October
  • Pages: 157
  • DDC: 507
  • Language: English

The ability of the nation's military to prevail during future conflicts, and to fulfill its humanitarian and other missions, depends on continued advances in the nation's technology base. A workforce with robust Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) capabilities is critical to sustaining U.S. preeminence. Today, however, the STEM activities of the Department of Defense (DOD) are a small and diminishing part of the nation's overall science and engineering enterprise.

Assuring the U.S. Department of Defense a Strong Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce presents five principal recommendations for attracting, retaining, and managing highly qualified STEM talent within the department based on an examination of the current STEM workforce of DOD and the defense industrial base. As outlined in the report, DOD should focus its investments to ensure that STEM competencies in all potentially critical, emerging topical areas are maintained at least at a basic level within the department and its industrial and university bases.

  • FrontMatter
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgment of Reviewers
  • Contents
  • Figures, Tables, and Boxes
  • Summary
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Emerging Science and Technology Fields
  • 3 The STEM Workforce in the Defense Industrial Base, Within DOD, and Overall
  • 4 Limitations to Meeting the Workforce Needs of DOD and the Industrial Base
  • 5 Institutional Capacity in Education and the DOD Investments Needed to Ensure an Adequate STEM Workforce
  • 6 A Closing Perspective on the DOD Workforce
  • Appendixes
  • Appendix A: Committee Biographies
  • Appendix B: Meetings and Speakers

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