Top of Mind: Caroline Wagner
Professor Caroline Wagner’s expertise in international science and technology research and policy has earned her global respect. (Credit: Majesti Brown)
Caroline Wagner has spent her career helping policymakers better understand how science and technology systems operate so they can govern them and influence them in a positive way.
That’s where I operated: between the policymakers’ desire of, ‘Can’t we just structure this so it does what we need it to do?’ and understanding the nature of how it just flourishes. That’s been to me the most interesting part of my work.
Professor Caroline Wagner gives a 2018 talk on the importance of openness in international collaboration among scientists as part of Masterminds, a series of short, engaging talks made by brilliant faculty at Ohio State. (Credit: Logan Wallace)
The more elite the scientist, the more likely it is they’re connected at the international level.
Leadership from Volunteerism to the Statehouse
Two-time Glenn College graduate Christine Cockley, an Ohio House representative, shares leadership lessons she learned from Faculty Emeritus Caroline Wagner.
Then, it goes back to reasons why I did what I did in my career. I felt it was important for students to understand that our whole society is based on some basic principles, and those principles for us are built into the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We’re not just making things up as we go; we have standards — that’s the way we create order and social benefit. I also reintroduced the Constitution in my classes. I would make students memorize the Preamble to the Constitution. These are the basic principles on which we base our decision making. That was always really, really important to me as a teacher.
Read a former student’s and fellow researcher’s memories about Wagner.
Travis Whetsell earned his PhD in public policy and management at the then-John Glenn School of Public Affairs in 2017.
Professor Wagner was my dissertation advisor in the mid-2010s. I remember I first got to know her because she sent out an open invitation to all the graduate students in the John Glenn School of Public Affairs (not yet a college) asking if we were interested in a co-authorship opportunity working on a manuscript she had been developing around science policy. As a grad student, you are generally looking for ways to publish. I had no knowledge or experience in science policy, bibliometrics or network analysis. In fact, at the time, my focus was on the philosophy of public administration. I had never and still have never heard of a professor being so open to collaborating with students that they send out blanket invitations like this. I would later learn that this fit perfectly with the ideals of open science, which she both preached and practiced. Responding to the invitation turned out to be a great instinct, because it marked the start of my career as a science policy researcher. Now I am a professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, which is considered one of the top science policy schools in the world.
Paul Dufour, Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy, has collaborated with Wagner on global science cooperation research.
Over several decades now, I have had the privilege of being Caroline’s friend and colleague. She is a wonderful collaborator with her thoughtful, articulate and well-documented contributions to the research on global science cooperation. I have also had the opportunity to work with her and offer commentary on some of this literature, as well as assisting in linking her to my own network. We first connected when I was with Canada’s International Development Research Centre and Caroline was looking for contacts in the developing world, and our collaboration only grew from there. Caroline knows Canada well and has given several talks at conferences in Canada over the years, and she kindly asked me to join her advisory board when she was heading up the Battelle Center for Science, Engineering and Public Policy.
Of course, her classic 2008 Brookings book, “The New Invisible College: Science for Development,” is required reading for anyone trying to grasp the intricacies of science collaboration among researchers around the globe. This oeuvre, with a forward by Francis Fukuyama, telegraphed the emerging scale and scope of knowledge production and anticipated the rise of new players beyond the usual suspects. By its very nature, science is power and its ability to transcend geopolitical strife and assist in diplomacy can be very effective. And, it should not be forgotten, science is also a global public good. Today, we need this even more.
Long ago, Caroline warned that the U.S. would not and could not continue to be the major player in science and noted that the rise of other players — especially China — would change the knowledge network dynamics. I am always learning from her.
Caroline has also been a great contributor to Canada’s efforts in research partnerships. I offered some guidance to Caroline when she was developing the 1999 RAND report on “U.S. Government Funding of Cooperative Research and Development in North America,” a document that offered up some salient data and commentary on how Canada and the U.S. were strong partners for progress. More recently, in 2024, we were both members of the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on International Science, Technology and Knowledge Partnerships that led to the report “Navigating Collaborative Futures.”
Caroline is surely highly deserving of Emeritus status to continue her groundbreaking research at Ohio State. She remains my great friend and is, dare I say, a true friend of Canada.