Of the whirlwind of events, lectures and celebrations that accompany Nobel Prize winners, few have been more important than recent testimony by Stanford’s Andrew Fire and Roger Kornberg before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology. As part of the most recent cohort of Nobel laureates in the sciences, Fire and Kornberg traveled last month to Washington to support more funding for scientific research. Fire and Kornberg are to be commended for their advocacy on behalf of the nation’s scientific community.

The efforts of the University’s Nobel duo come at a critical juncture in the history of federal backing for scientific research. Funding for organizations such as the National Institutes of Health has fallen in recent years, while Iraq war appropriations continue to consume much of the federal budget. Although there seems to be bipartisan agreement that additional funding for scientific research is needed, the testimony of Fire and Kornburg may have given a much-needed nudge to lawmakers sitting on the fence.

A Nobel Prize bestows on its recipient tremendous honor and recognition, which in turn confer visible credibility. It is inspiring to see Stanford’s Nobel tandem harness this authority toward a strong cause. Although Congress has largely settled on a budget for the 2008 fiscal year, lawmakers would do well in future years to heed the advice of Fire and Kornberg.