White House Announces PCAST Membership

Science policy developments within the Clinton Administration have been eclipsed by the release of the report, “Science in the National Interest” (see FYIs #120-122, 124, 128, 129). Yet that is not the only recent action the White House has taken to strengthen Administration science policy. On August 3, Vice President Gore announced the membership of PCAST, the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The 18-member committee, recast from its form under the Bush Administration, is Clinton’s private-sector answer to the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). NSTC provides a Cabinet-level forum for science policy discussion within the federal government, and, according to the White House, PCAST will “serve as a formal channel for private sector advice” to NSTC. The naming of a private-sector group is intended to highlight “the Administration’s goal of fostering public/private partnerships to achieve national science and education goals.”

“I am very pleased to name these eminent scientists, engineers, business leaders, and educators as some of my key advisors,” President Clinton announced. “Drawn from a cross-section of America, they will help ensure that our science and technology policies reflect our nation’s needs: health; prosperity based on long-term economic growth and technological investment; national security; environmental responsibility; and improved quality of life.” PCAST will provide input to the President both directly, and through Jack Gibbons, the President’s Assistant for Science and Technology, who co-chairs the committee with John Young, former President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The membership of the committee is provided below:

Norman Augustine: Chairman and CEO, Martin Marietta Corporation.
Francisco Ayala: Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences; Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine.
Murray Gell-Mann: Professor, Santa Fe Institute; R.A. Millikan Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology.
David Hamburg: President, Carnegie Corporation of New York.
John Holdren: Professor of Energy, University of California, Berkeley.
Diana MacArthur: Chair and CEO, Dynamac Corporation.
Shirley Malcom: Head, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, AAAS.
Mario Molina: Martin Professor of Environmental Sciences, MIT.
Peter Raven: Director, Missouri Botanical Garden; Engelmann Professor of Botany, Washington University in St. Louis.
Sally Ride: Director, California Space Institute; Professor of Physics, University of California, San Diego.
Judith Rodin: President, University of Pennsylvania.
Charles Sanders: Chairman and CEO, Glaxo, Inc.
Phillip Sharp: Professor of Biology; Head, Department of Biology, MIT.
David Shaw: CEO, D.E. Shaw and Co.
Charles Vest: President, MIT.
Virginia Weldon: Sr. Vice President for Public Policy, Monsanto Co.
Lilian Shiao-Yen Wu: Member, Research Staff, T.J. Watson Research Center, IBM.