Richard Andrew Meserve

Richard A. Meserve is the President Emeritus of the Carnegie Institution for Science. He previously was Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Covington & Burling LLP. He now serves on a part-time basis as Senior Of Counsel with the firm. He has a JD from Harvard Law School and PhD in applied physics from Stanford University. Early in his career he served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Judge Benjamin Kaplan and as legal counsel to the President’s Science Adviser. He has served on or chaired numerous committees involving legal/technical issues, including many convened by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Among other activities, he is the former President of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and Chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group (chartered by the International Atomic Energy Agency). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, formerly serving as a member of its Council, is a member of the American Philosophical Society, and is a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994, and serves on its Council and Trust. He is also as a member of the advisory committee to its Global Nuclear Future Initiative and is chairing the Public Face of Science study.