On April 27, President Barack Obama announced the 20 members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), including eleven Fellows of the Academy. The group of leading scientists and engineers will serve as advisors to the President and Vice President on policy areas “where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people,” according to the White House.
“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,” said President Obama.
PCAST will be co-chaired by three Fellows of the Academy: 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 Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Other Fellows appointed to PCAST include:
A full list of PCAST members, including their bios, is available on the PCAST website.
“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,” said President Obama.
PCAST will be co-chaired by three Fellows of the Academy: 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 Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Other Fellows appointed to PCAST include:
- Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
- Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Richard Levin, President of Yale University
- William Press, Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
- Barbara Schaal, Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis
- Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google Inc.
- David E. Shaw, Chief Scientist at D. E. Shaw Research, LLC
- Ahmed Zewail, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center
A full list of PCAST members, including their bios, is available on the PCAST website.