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NNadir

(33,368 posts)
Sun Oct 18, 2020, 11:03 AM Oct 2020

The Chairwoman of the SUNY Stony Brook Chemistry Dept Running Against a Trumper...

...for Congress.

This is a note in the high impact scientific journal Science: In New York, chemist Nancy Goroff is battling a Trump loyalist for a seat in Congress

It should be open sourced, as it's a news item.

An excerpt:

Her opponent calls her a “radical professor.” But Nancy Goroff says her scientific expertise is exactly what Congress needs to deal effectively with climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a host of other issues.

A physical organic chemist and longtime faculty member at Stony Brook University, Goroff will face off in November against Representative Lee Zeldin (R–NY), a lawyer seeking his fourth term. If she wins, Goroff would become the first female Ph.D. scientist to serve in Congress.

Running in a Long Island district that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 after twice backing Barack Obama for president, the first-time candidate is touting her scientific credentials.

“As a scientist, I look at things differently than the way politicians do,” Goroff says in one ad. Referring to the pandemic, she adds, “I’m running for Congress to use my science to lead us out of this crisis...”

...Along with many of her academic peers, Goroff stepped up those advocacy efforts after Trump took office in January 2017. She participated in both the Women’s March the day after his inauguration and the People’s Climate March in April, although professional obligations prevented her from attending the March for Science 1 week earlier. But she didn’t join the cluster of scientists running as part of what turned out to be a successful attempt by Democrats to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I had just started as department chair [in January 2017] after stepping down as interim dean of the graduate school, and I was focused on how to make the university a better place,” she says.

Still, she didn’t like where Trump was taking the country, and she was also troubled by the growing power of social media to amplify false messages and distort civic discourse. In the aftermath of the November 2018 midterm elections, she says, “I felt that it was time to put in a full effort and try to be part of the solution...”


It was my privilege here in New Jersey to have a scientist as a Congressperson, Representative Dr. Rush Holt, until he retired. He was, by far, the best congressperson I have ever had in my entire life, and not just because he was a scientist, but because he was also an outstanding human being. I didn't agree with every position he took, but I always felt that his positions were considered and honorable. He was an (unsuccessful) pioneer in addressing the rising issue of election integrity when he was in Congress.

I grew up in Suffolk County, on Long Island. It's suburban redneck country, fairly right wing, although there is some potential for decency there, and a few times, I recall that Democrats actually won a few elections, not many but a few.

SUNY Stony Brook is a fairly decent university, not quite the UC Berkeley it was founded to be, but a pretty good school over all.

I wish Professor Goroff all the success in the world. May she succeed in her effort to win the election.


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