Episode Details

In November 1944, President Roosevelt asked one question that would reshape the 20th century: how do we turn wartime science into a national engine for peacetime progress? In this opening lecture of a three-part Friday Night Lecture series, Dr. Rick Lindroth — Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Ecology Emeritus at UW–Madison and Distinguished Research Fellow at the S.L. Brown Foundation's Lumen Center — traces the origins of American science funding from Vannevar Bush's landmark report Science, the Endless Frontier, to today's federal research landscape. Lindroth lays out what actually makes something "science," why basic research matters, and why public trust in science — once among the highest of any profession — has fractured sharply along political lines since 2020. Part one of "Can Science Be Trusted?"

Dr. Rick Lindroth is a Distinguished Fellow of The Lumen Center and a Distinguished Achievement Professor (emeritus) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also served as Associate Dean for Research. Dr. Lindroth was a recipient of the Hilldale Award in Biological Sciences and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Ecological Society of America, and the Entomological Society of America. He served as an editor for four science journals and on advisory panels for national and international research agencies. Dr. Lindroth and his research team published ~250 scientific articles and chapters on a wide range of ecological topics. 

Currently, Dr. Lindroth speaks and writes to the public and faith-based groups about environmental stewardship, climate change, biodiversity, and science denialism/communication.

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