Contact Staff

Mailing & FedEx Address and Office Location:

The National Academies
500 Fifth Street, NW – Keck 551
Washington, DC 20001
Policy and Global Affairs Division
Board on Global Science and Technology (BGST)
 

Phone: (202) 334-2424
Fax: (202) 334-1667
E-mail: bgst@nas.edu
Web site: www.nationalacademies.org/pga/bgst

 Staff:

Patricia Wrightson, Study Director
pwrightson@nas.edu
Patricia Wrightson is Associate Director of the Board on Global Science and Technology, a new board of the National Research Council that is tasked with enhancing global transparency with regard to international scientific and technological advances. She also directs the Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security, a standing committee of the National Research Council. This Committee was established to address the oversight and conduct of science in the context of emerging national security and economic challenges. She was the study director for the report, Beyond "Fortress America": National Security Controls on Science and Technology in a Globalized World. Currently she is directing a study on the impact of export controls on critical infrastructure abroad that is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Wrightson also works on South Asia-related issues at the National Academies; her current project focuses on opportunities for S&T institution-building in Pakistan. Previously, she directed Global Dialogues on Emerging Science and Technology, a two-year project sponsored by the Department of State that involved four international workshops on fundamental research in diverse emerging areas of science. This project ended in fall 2006. Dr. Wrightson came to the National Academies in August 2000 to organize the Workshop on Scientific Communication and National Security. Prior to coming to the National Academies, she taught at Georgetown for six years, where she held a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. Subject areas in which she has researched and published include International Relations, American Foreign Policy, National Security Studies, the Cold War, International Ethics, and Classical and Modern Political Theory.

Ethan Chiang, Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow
echiang@nas.edu
Ethan Chiang is an Associate Program Officer with the Board on Global Science and Technology. After completing his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University in August 2009, Ethan came to the National Academies as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow. Dr. Chiang's graduate research investigated the molecular mechanisms that drive the nano-scale redistribution of proteins at the plasma membrane during immune cell activation. Through a Cornell-Rockefeller-Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional Chemical Biology Fellowship, he participated in multiple interdisciplinary projects involving: organic drug synthesis, protein crystallography, bio-polymer chemistry, and nano-fabrication. He also holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Whitman College, where his undergraduate research utilized inverse gas chromatography to study the chemical surface modification of mineral particle additives in polyolefin composites.

Neeraj Gorkhaly, Senior Program Assistant
ngorkhaly@nas.edu
Neeraj Gorkhaly is a Research Associate for COSEPUP. He grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal and completed his B.A. in Economics and International Studies from The Ohio State University. He was a John Glenn Policy Fellow at the World Bank and Ohio State representative for the NAFTA Study Abroad Program at El Colegio De Postgraduados En Ciencias Agrarias, Texecoco, Mexico. He currently chairs the board of directors for VENT publication, an e-magazine promoting citizen journalism and also serves on the board for The SaTTya program, both in Nepal. He occasionally mentors John Glenn Policy Fellows in DC. Neeraj has been at The National Academies since 2004.

Peter Hunsberger, Financial Officer
phunsberger@nas.edu
Peter Hunsberger is a Financial Officer supporting the Board on Global Science and Technology (BGST). Peter has worked at the National Academies since 2006. In addition to BISO, he also works with the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP); the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO); and the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC). Prior to joining the Academies, he worked for four years at a regional commercial bank in Michigan. Peter graduated from Hope College in Holland, MI in 2002 with a B.A. in Accounting, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University.

Dennis Chamot, DEPS Liaison
dchamot@nas.edu
Dr. Dennis Chamot serves currently as Associate Executive Director in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Research Council of the National Academies. Prior to the creation of the division, he was the Deputy Executive Director of the NRC’s Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems. Dr. Chamot began his professional career as a research chemist with DuPont. Subsequently he served in several positions with the AFL-CIO, leaving in 1994, when he was executive assistant to the president of the Department for Professional Employees, to join the senior staff of CETS. Dr. Chamot has served as a member of advisory and study committees, including at the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the U.S. Department of Labor, and prior to employment, at the National Research Council. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Chamot earned BS and MS degrees from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now Polytechnic University), Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois, and MBA from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.