Howard McCurdy's Forum for Space Exploration
Public Policy for Innovation
The Public Policy Innovation initiative (2π or Two Pi) was organized in 2014 through the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. The initiative is devoted to the examination of public policies that promote innovation through science and technology, both on Earth and beyond.
Our Vision
Our Mission
What We Do
Philosophy
Our Name
To promote a society in which innovation spurs economic growth, expands personal freedom, creates new knowledge, and overcomes challenges.
Conduct research, offer objective advice, and encourage partnerships that advance science and technology.
Two Pi conducts research on the processes by which public officials and private entities cooperate to foster innovation. We offer objective advice on government policies that affect change through science and technology. We seek to advance the cause of space exploration and related technologies.
We believe that public policy research should be timely, accessible, and freely available. We favor the university extension model in which verifiable research findings are communicated directly to practitioners in the field. We want to encourage graduate and undergraduate students to study science and technology. Our work requires us to foster cooperation between scholars who study space science, history, economics, business entrepreneurship, and public policy from many perspectives.
2Pi represents Public Policy innovation. The designation 2π is also an important element of space exploration, particularly the calculation of the orbital period of geostationary communication satellites of the sort proposed in 1945 by the future science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark. The other components are the length of the orbital axis and the standard gravitational parameter of the object at the center of the orbit.