To assist leaders in government, academic, the private sector and others who depend on the physical sciences as they craft specific recommendations to address the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts, the American Institute of Physics convened a panel of experts to forecast the effects on the physical sciences.
The panel that produced this report is composed of nine experts who bring scientific, institutional, experiential, and other dimensions of diversity to this task. Over the course of six weeks, from May to June 2020, the panel focused on the actual and potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical sciences enterprise as a first step in envisioning a post-pandemic recovery strategy. This report discusses the pandemic’s current and expected impacts on the physical sciences enterprise in three dimensions: workforce, infrastructure, and the conduct of research.