Clinton Makes Nominations to OSTP, NIST
The White House has announced that President Clinton intends to submit to the Senate two nominations for science- and technology-related positions, one within the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and one within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST.) With its rush to wrap up the appropriations bills before the new fiscal year begins on October 1, it is not known when the Senate might address these nominations.
OSTP ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR TECHNOLOGY: President Clinton intends to nominate Duncan Moore, the 1996 President of the Optical Society of America, as Associate Director for Technology at OSTP, the White House’s science- and technology-policy shop.
Moore brings to the position experience in academia, industry, and government. According to a September 3 White House press release, he is Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Rochester, where he earned his PhD in Optics. He also served as Director of the university’s Institute of Optics from 1987-93. Moore founded, and is President of, the Gradient Lens Corporation, and he was The American Physical Society’s 1993-94 Congressional Science Fellow, working in the office of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV.) In addition, he chaired the 1990 Independent Optical Review Panel for the Hubble Space Telescope.
The press release states, “OSTP advises the President on policy and budget formulation in all matters in which science and technology are important elements. OSTP also coordinates the development and implementation of the Administration’s domestic and international science, research, and technology policies, programs, and budgets in support of the President’s goals for strengthening the economy and creating jobs, improving education and health care, enhancing the quality of the environment, harnessing information technology, and maintaining national security.”
NIST DIRECTOR: On September 4, President Clinton also announced that he will nominate Ray Kammer to be Director of the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. A White House press release states that Kammer has worked for the Commerce Department since 1969, and is currently serving, on an acting basis, as Commerce’s Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, and Assistant Secretary for Administration. Kammer, who has a B.A. from the University of Maryland, served as Deputy Director of NIST from 1980-91, and again from 1993 to the present. In the interim, from 1991-93, he was the Department of Commerce’s Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.
“The Directorship of NIST,” the press release says, “oversees programs that work in partnership with industry to promote U.S. economic growth through the development and application of technology, measurements, and standards.”
