THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 27, 2009
President Obama Announces Members of Science and Technology Advisory Council
WASHINGTON – Today, during remarks at the National Academy of
Sciences, President Barack Obama announced the President’s Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The full membership of
PCAST is below.
PCAST is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and
engineers who will advise the President and Vice President and
formulate policy in the many areas where understanding of science,
technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and
forming policy that works for the American people.
President Barack Obama said, "This council
represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a
diversity of experience and views. I will charge PCAST with advising me
about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of
scientific innovation."
PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, Assistant to the President
for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the
Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes
of Health and a Nobel laureate.
Dr. John Holdren, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
said, "This PCAST is a group of exceptional caliber as well as
diversity, covering a wide range of expertise and backgrounds across
the relevant science, engineering and innovation fields and sectors.
The President and I expect to make major use of this extraordinary
group as we work to strengthen our country’s capabilities in science
and technology and bring them more effectively to bear on the national
challenges we face."
The membership of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is below:
Rosina Bierbaum, a widely-recognized expert in
climate-change science and ecology, is Dean of the School of Natural
Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. Her PhD is in
evolutionary biology and ecology. She served as Associate Director for
Environment in OSTP in the Clinton Administration, as well as Acting
Director of OSTP in 2000-2001. She is a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
Christine Cassel is President and CEO of the
American Board of Internal Medicine and previously served as Dean of
the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Oregon
Health & Science University. A member of the US Institute of
Medicine, she is a leading expert in geriatric medicine and quality of
care.
Christopher Chyba is Professor of Astrophysical
Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member
of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the
National Academy of Sciences. His scientific work focuses on solar
system exploration and his security-related research emphasizes nuclear
and biological weapons policy, proliferation, and terrorism. He served
on the White House staff from 1993 to 1995 at the National Security
Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy and was awarded
a MacArthur Prize Fellowship (2001) for his work in both planetary
science and international security.
S. James Gates Jr. is the John S. Toll Professor of
Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at
the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the first African
American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major research
university. He has served as a consultant to the National Science
Foundation, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, and the
Educational Testing Service and held appointments at MIT, Harvard,
California Institute of Technology and Howard University.
John Holdren is serving as co-chair of PCAST in
addition to his duties as Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Prior to this
appointment Dr. Holdren was a Professor of Environmental Policy and
Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at
Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He also served
concurrently as Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in
Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and as Director of
the independent, nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. He is a member
of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as
a former President of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship.
Shirley Ann Jackson is the President of Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute and former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (1995-1999). She is the University Vice Chairman of the U.S.
Council on Competitiveness, a member of the National Academy of
Engineering, fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and past
President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Jackson was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate
from MIT and chairs the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board.
Eric Lander is serving as a co-chair of PCAST. He
is the Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Professor
of Biology at MIT, Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical
School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
He was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project,
recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and is a member
of both the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine.
Richard Levin has served as President of Yale
University since 1993 and is a distinguished economist with interests
in industrial organization, the patent system, and the competitiveness
of American manufacturing industries, including industrial research and
development, intellectual property, and productivity. He is a leader in
US-China cooperation, in research and education, and is a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Chad Mirkin is Professor of Materials Science and
Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University, as
well as Director of Northwestern's International Institute of
Nanotechnology. He is a leading expert on nanotechnology, including
nano-scale manufacturing and applications to medicine. Awarded the
Feynrnan Prize in Nanotechnology in 2002, he is the top-cited
researcher in nano-medicine in the world, as well as one of the most
widely cited chemists.
Mario Molina is a Professor of Chemistry and
Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Center
for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as
well as Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment
in Mexico City. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for
his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth's ozone layer of
chlorofluorocarbon gases. The only Mexican-born Nobel laureate in
science, he served on PCAST for both Clinton terms. He is a member of
both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
Ernest J. Moniz is a Professor of Physics and
Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of
the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT. His research
centers on energy technology and policy, including the future of
nuclear power, coal, natural gas, and solar energy in a low-carbon
world. He served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy
(1997-2001) and Associate Director for Science in the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy (1995-1997).
Craig Mundie is Chief Research and Strategy Officer
at Microsoft Corporation. He has 39 years of experience in the computer
industry, beginning as a developer of operating systems. Dr. Mundie
co-founded and served as CEO of Alliant Computer Systems.
William Press is Professor of Computer Sciences at
the University of Texas at Austin, has wide-ranging expertise in
computer science, astrophysics, and international security. A member of
the US National Academy of Sciences, he previously served as Deputy
Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory from 1998 to 2004. He is a Professor of Astronomy
and Physics at Harvard University and a former member of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1982-1998).
Maxine Savitz is retired general manager of
Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, Inc and has more than 30 years of
experience managing research, development and implementation programs
for the public and private sectors, including in the aerospace,
transportation, and industrial sectors. From 1979 to 1983 she served as
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation in the US Department of
Energy. She currently serves as vice-president of the National Academy
of Engineering.
Barbara Schaal is Professor of Biology at
Washington University in St Louis. She is a renowned plant geneticist
who has used molecular genetics to understand the evolution and ecology
of plants, ranging from the US Midwest to the tropics. Dr Schaal serves
as Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences, the first woman
ever elected to that role.
Eric Schmidt is Chairman and CEO of Google Inc. and
a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. Before joining Google,
Dr. Schmidt served as Chief Technology Officer for Sun Microsystems and
later as CEO of Novell Inc.
Daniel Schrag is the Sturgis Hooper Professor of
Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard
University and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in
the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is also Director of
the Harvard University-wide Center for Environment. He was trained as a
marine geochemist and has employed a variety of methods to study the
carbon cycle and climate over a wide range of Earth’s history. Awarded
a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 2000, he has recently been working on
technological approaches to mitigating future climate change.
David E. Shaw is the chief scientist of D. E. Shaw
Research, LLC, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group in
the field of computational biochemistry. He is the founder of D. E.
Shaw & Co., a hedge fund company. Dr. Shaw is a former member of
PCAST under President Clinton and a member of the executive committee
of the Council on Competitiveness, where he co-chairs the steering
committee for the Council’s federally funded High-Performance Computing
Initiative. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and serves on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the
National Academies.
Harold Varmus is the President and CEO of Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chair of PCAST. Dr. Varmus served
as the Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999
and in 1989 was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine for his pioneering studies of the genetic basis of cancer. He
is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of
Medicine and recipient of the National Medal of Science.
Ahmed Zewail is Professor of Chemistry and Physics
at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center. Dr. Zewail was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for his pioneering work
that allowed observation of exceedingly rapid molecular
transformations. He is an Egyptian-American, widely respected not only
for his science but also for his efforts in the Middle East as a voice
of reason. Dr. Zewail is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
and postage stamps have been issued to honor his contributions to
science and humanity.