GEORGE M. WHITESIDES (Chair) was born August 3, 1939 in Louisville, KY. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts) in 1964. He was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. He joined the Department of Chemistry of Harvard University in 1982, and was Department Chairman 1986-89, and Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry from 1982-2004. He is now the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor.

 

CLAUDE R. CANIZARES Professor Canizares is the Associate Provost and Bruno Rossi Professor of Experimental Physics at MIT. As Associate Provost, Professor Canizares assists the Provost in various areas of academic administration—he oversees the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, addresses the Institute's relationships with federal agencies and is responsible for campus space usage and planning. Related committee memberships include the Institute's Committee on Resource and Space Planning (Chair); Capital Projects Committee; the Building Committee, and the Lincoln Laboratory Advisory Board and Steering Committee.

He also plays a role in resolving faculty grievances, and is a member of the Academic Council and the Academic Appointments Committee. Additional academic and scientific organizational memberships include the Board of Trustees of the Associated Universities Inc.; the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council; and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences; the International Academy of Astronautics, and a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Canizares also served on the NASA Advisory Council and was chair of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council and NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee.

 

Professor Canizares received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Harvard University. He came to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow in 1971 and joined the faculty in 1974, progressing to professor of physics in 1984. From 1990 to 2002, Professor Canizares was the Director of the Center for Space Research (now the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research); in 2002, he was appointed an Associate Provost at MIT. He has authored or co-authored more than 170 scientific papers.

 

MOSES HUNG-WAI CHAN is a physics professor at Penn State University, where he holds the rank of Evan Pugh Professor. He is an alumnus of Bridgewater Collegeand Cornell University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1974. He has been at professor at Penn State's University Park Campus since 1979.

Through the years, Professor Chan's work has spanned many diverse topics.  For his numerous contributions to low temperature physics, in 1996 he shared the prestigious Fritz London Memorial Prize with Carl Wieman and Eric A. Cornell.  He was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2000.

Among his most nobable recent contributions is the discovery of the new supersolid quantum state of matter, which is directly complementary to the superfluid, and BEC states.  Other significant discoveries include the experimental observation of Critical Casimir effect and the experimental confirmation of 2D Ising model.

 

RALPH J. CICERONE (ex-officio), president of the National Academy of Sciences, is an atmospheric scientist whose research in atmospheric chemistry and climate change has involved him in shaping science and environmental policy at the highest levels nationally and internationally.

 

His research was recognized on the citation for the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to University of California, Irvine colleague F. Sherwood Rowland. The Franklin Institute recognized his fundamental contributions to the understanding of greenhouse gases and ozone depletion by selecting Cicerone as the 1999 laureate for the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science. One of the most prestigious American awards in science, the Bower also recognized his public policy leadership in protecting the global environment. In 2001, he led a National Academy of Sciences study of the current state of climate change and its impact on the environment and human health, requested by President Bush. The American Geophysical Union awarded him its 2002 Roger Revelle Medal for outstanding research contributions to the understanding of Earth’s atmospheric processes, biogeochemical cycles, or other key elements of the climate system. In 2004, the World Cultural Council honored him with another of the scientific community’s most distinguished awards, the Albert Einstein World Award in Science.

 

During his early career at the University of Michigan, Cicerone was a research scientist and held faculty positions in electrical and computer engineering. In 1978 he joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego as a research chemist. From 1980 to 1989, he was a senior scientist and director of the atmospheric chemistry division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. In 1989 he was appointed the Daniel G. Aldrich Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine and chaired the department of earth system science from 1989 to 1994. While serving as dean of physical sciences for the next four years, he brought outstanding faculty to the school and strengthened its curriculum and outreach programs. Prior to his election as Academy president, Cicerone was the chancellor of the University of California, Irvine from 1998 to 2005.

 

Cicerone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He has served as president of the American Geophysical Union, the world's largest society of earth scientists, and he received its James B. Macelwane Award in 1979 for outstanding contributions to geophysics. He has published about 100 refereed papers and 200 conference papers, and has presented invited testimony to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on a number of occasions.

 

Cicerone received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a varsity baseball player. Both his master's and doctoral degrees are from the University of Illinois in electrical engineering, with a minor in physics

 

EDWARD F. CRAWLEY is professor and department head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a MacVicar Faculty Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is also a member of the NASA Technology and Commercialization Advisory Committee (TCAC). He is conversant in Russian, and has spent time as a visitor at the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was a finalist in the NASA Astronaut selection in 1980, is an active pilot, and was the 1990 and 1995 Northeast Regional Soaring champion. Dr. Crawley has served as the Chairman of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI), Structures and Dynamics Technical Committee, and serves as Chairman of the Soaring Society of America (SSA) Structures and Materials Panel. He is a Fellow of the AIAA. In 1987, Dr. Crawley was an advisor to the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Space Station, and in 1993 was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Space Station Redesign. Dr. Crawley received an SB (1976) and an SM (1978) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an ScD (1980) in Structural Dynamics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the author of over 50 journal publications in the AIAA Journal, the ASME Journal, the Journal of Composite Materials, and Acta Astronautica. Dr. Crawley’s current research interests include, the design of spacecraft and space systems, the development of intelligent structures with embedded actuators, sensors and processors and the architecture of large engineering systems.

RUTH A. DAVID In October 1998, Dr. David became president and chief executive officer of ANSER, an independent, not-for-profit, public service research institution that provides research and analytic support on national and transnational issues. In November 1999, Dr. David initiated Analytic Services’ Homeland Defense Strategic Thrust to address the growing national concern of multidimensional, asymmetric threats from rogue nations, substate terrorist groups, and domestic terrorists. In May 2001, the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security was established to enhance public awareness and education and contribute to the dialog on the national, state, and local levels. In April 2004, the corporation was selected by the Department of Homeland Security to establish and operate a new federally funded research and development center, the Homeland Security Institute.

 

From September 1995 to September 1998, Dr. David was Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency. As Technical Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence, she was responsible for research, development, and deployment of technologies in support of all phases of the intelligence process. She represented the CIA on numerous national committees and advisory bodies, including the National Science and Technology Council and the Committee on National Security. Upon her departure from this position, she was awarded the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, the Director of NSA Distinguished Service Medal, the National Reconnaissance Officer’s Award for Distinguished Service, and the Defense Intelligence Director’s Award.

 

Previously, Dr. David served in several leadership positions at the Sandia National Laboratories, where she began her professional career in 1975. Most recently, she was Director of Advanced Information Technologies. From 1991 to 1994, Dr. David was Director of the Development Testing Center that developed and operated a broad spectrum of full-scale engineering test facilities. Dr. David has also been an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. She has technical experience in digital and microprocessor-based system design, digital signal analysis, adaptive signal analysis, and system integration.

 

Dr. David is a member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the Corporation for the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. She is Chair of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Technology Insight–Gauge, Evaluate, and Review and Vice Chair of the HSAC Senior Advisory Committee of Academia and Policy Research. She also serves on the National Security Agency Advisory Board, the NAE Committee on Engineering Education, the NRC Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security, the NRC Committee on Information for Terrorism Prevention, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Technical Division’s Advisory Board, the National Advisory Committee for the Wichita State University Foundation, and the External Advisory Committee for Purdue University’s Homeland Security Institute.

 

Dr. David previously served on the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, the NRC Naval Studies Board, the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, the Defense Science Board, the Department of Energy Nonproliferation and National Security Advisory Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Technical Advisory Group and the Securities and Exchange Commission Technical Advisory Group.

 

Dr. David is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, a Class Director for the AFCEA International Board of Directors, and a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Society.

Dr. David received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Wichita State University (1975), an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University (1976), and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University (1981).

 

Dr. David frequently provides speeches, interviews, lectures, briefings, and articles on the many facets of homeland security. She is the coauthor of three books on signal processing algorithms and has authored or coauthored numerous papers.

 

HARVEY V. FINEBERG (ex-officio) is President of the Institute of Medicine. He served as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following thirteen years as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. Dr. Fineberg helped found and served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and also served as adviser and consultant to the US Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. At the Institute of Medicine, he has chaired and served on a number of panels dealing with health policy issues, ranging from AIDS to vaccine safety. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of numerous books and articles on such diverse topics as AIDS prevention, tuberculosis control, assessment of new medical technology, clinical and public health decision making, and understanding risk in society.

JACQUES S. GANSLER. The Honorable Jacques S. Gansler, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, is the first holder of the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise. As the third ranking civilian at the Pentagon from 1997 to 2001, Professor Gansler was responsible for all research and development, acquisition reform, logistics, advanced technology, environmental security, defense industry, and numerous other security programs. Before joining the Clinton Administration, Dr. Gansler held a variety of positions in government and the private sector, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Material Acquisition), Assistant Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Electronics), Vice President of ITT, and engineering and management positions with Singer and Raytheon Corporations. Throughout his career, Dr. Gansler has written, published and taught on subjects related to his work. He is the author of Defense Conversion: Transforming the Arsenal of Democracy, MIT Press, 1995; Affording Defense, MIT Press, 1989, and The Defense Industry, MIT Press, 1980. He has published numerous articles in Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, International Security, Public Affairs, and other journals as well as newspapers and frequent Congressional testimonies. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

 

M.R.C. GREENWOOD (ex-officio) was appointed President of the University of Hawaii in August of 2009.   From 2004 to July 2009, she held the position of Professor of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis.  Prior to teaching a UC Davis, Dr. Greenwood served as Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1996 through May of 2004; and also held a UC Santa Cruz appointment as Professor of Biology. Dr. Greenwood graduated summa cum laude from Vassar College and received her Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University. Prior to her UC Santa Cruz appointments, Chancellor Greenwood served as Dean of Graduate Studies, Vice Provost for Academic Outreach, and Professor of Biology and Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis.  Previously, Dr. Greenwood taught at Vassar College where she was the John Guy Vassar Professor of Natural Sciences, Chair of the Department of Biology, and Director of the Undergraduate Research Summer Institute.

Dr. Greenwood held an appointment as Associate Director for Science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 1993-1995.  Chancellor Greenwood is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the California Academy of Sciences.  She has been honored by numerous organizations for her contributions to science and science policy.  She was (1998) President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  She was a member of the National Science Board.  Her research interests are in developmental cell biology, genetics, physiology, nutrition and science, and higher education policy issues. Her work over the past 25 years, focusing on the genetic causes of obesity, is recognized worldwide. She is the author of numerous scientific publications and presentations

JUDITH KIMBLE intended to become a physician. But in her last year as an undergraduate, she had a close encounter with the medical profession that led her in a different direction. "I found medical science to be disturbingly primitive, and doctors seemed detached and unconcerned about the human side of their profession," she says. Instead of becoming a medical student, she took a temporary job at the University of Copenhagen Medical School, where she taught medical students about the structure and function of human organs. "From this experience in Denmark, as well as from studying human embryology as an undergraduate in Berkeley, I became fascinated with basic problems in animal development," she says. Since then, she has been unraveling the controls that allow formation of an ancient organ, the gonad. Her work has led the way to understanding a variety of molecular mechanisms that control growth, differentiation, and pattern formation in all animals.

 

Kimble's long-term goal is to unravel the complete molecular program controlling gonad formation in C. elegans. One of the best things about being a scientist, she says, is working on big questions that are initially black boxes and having those "eureka moments" when you discover a way into the problem. "Another," she says, "is having the opportunity to devote your life to following your passions."

Dr. Kimble is also Vilas Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

 

C. DAN MOTE, JR. In September 1998, C. D. (Dan) Mote, Jr. began his tenure as President of the University of Maryland and Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering. He was recruited to lead the University of Maryland to national eminence under a mandate by the state. Since assuming the presidency, he has encouraged an environment of excellence across the University and given new impetus to the momentum generated by a talented faculty and student body. Under his leadership, academic programs have flourished. In 2005, the University was ranked 18th among public research universities, up from 30th in 1998. President Mote has emphasized broad access to the university's model, enriched undergraduate curriculum programs and launched the Baltimore Incentive Awards Program to recruit and provide full support to high school students of outstanding potential who have overcome extraordinary adversity during their lives.

He has spurred the university to lead the state in the development of its high-tech economy, especially in the information and communication, bioscience and biotechnology, and nano-technology sectors. President Mote has greatly expanded the university's partnerships with corporate and federal laboratories and successfully negotiated to bring to the College Park area the first Science Research Park sponsored by the People's Republic of China. Under his leadership, the University has established a research park, The University of Maryland Enterprise Campus, M-Square, located on a 115-acre site adjacent to the University of Maryland/College Park Metro with 3 million square feet of development potential. Among its first tenants are the Center for Advanced Study of Language, a joint venture of the University and Department of Defense, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new World Weather and Climate Prediction Center.

During President Mote's second year in office, the University began the largest building boom in its history, with more than $100 million in new projects breaking ground that year. New facilities address every aspect of university life, from the arts to recreation to classrooms and laboratories, and, in creative partnership with the private sector, new residential facilities. Highlights of the construction activity include the stunning Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center; the Comcast Center, a state of the art sports complex; a high tech research greenhouse; and new classrooms for chemistry, computer science, business and engineering. President Mote also led the development of a new Facilities Master Plan for development in the next 20 years, which is noted for its emphasis on environmental stewardship.

Dr. Mote is a leader in the national dialogue on higher education and his analyses of shifting funding models have been featured in local and national media. He has testified on major educational issues before Congress, representing the University and higher education associations on the problem of visa barriers for international students and scholars and on deemed export control issues. He has been asked to serve on a high level National Academies Committee appointed at the request of the Senate Energy Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to identify challenges to United States leadership in key areas of science and technology and to be a member of the Leadership Council of the National Innovation Initiative, an activity of the Council on Competitiveness. He has served as vice chair of the Department of Defense Basic Research Committee, and is a member of the Council of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2004-2005, he served as President of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In its last ranking in 2002, "Washington Business Forward" magazine counted him among the top 20 most influential leaders in the region.

Prior to assuming the Presidency at Maryland, Dr. Mote served on the University of California, Berkeley faculty for 31 years. From 1991 to 1998, he was Vice Chancellor at Berkeley, held an endowed chair in Mechanical Systems and was President of the UC Berkeley Foundation. He led a comprehensive capital campaign for Berkeley that raised $1.4 B. He earlier served as chair of Berkeley's Department of Mechanical Engineering and led the department to its number one ranking in the National Research Council review of graduate program effectiveness.

Dr. Mote's research lies in dynamic systems and biomechanics. Internationally recognized for his research on the dynamics of gyroscopic systems and the biomechanics of snow skiing, he has produced more than 300 publications, holds patents in the U.S., Norway, Finland and Sweden, and has mentored 56 Ph.D. students. He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. President Mote has received numerous awards and honors, including the Humboldt Prize awarded by the Federal Republic of Germany. He is a recipient of the Berkeley Citation, an award from the University of California-Berkeley similar to the honorary doctorate, and was named Distinguished Engineering Alumnus. He has received two honorary doctorates. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and serves on its Council, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected to Honorary Membership in the ASME International, its most distinguished recognition, and is a Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science, the Acoustical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In Spring 2005, he was named recipient of the 2005 J. P. Den Hartog award by the ASME International Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound to honor his lifelong contribution to the teaching and/or practice of vibration engineering. In Fall 2005, he received the 2005 Founders Award from the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his comprehensive body of work on the dynamics of moving flexible structures and for leadership in academia.

He and his wife of over 40 years, Patricia Mote, have two married children, Melissa and Adam, and four grandchildren. Patsy Mote has continued her strong support of the arts and is spokesperson for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and a member of Prince George's County Arts Commission.

 

ROBERT NEREM is Professor and Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine at Georgia Tech and is Director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues.  He also has a joint appointment in the Georgia Tech/Emory Biomedical Engineering Department and the School of Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Dr. Nerem was a Professor and Chairman in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. The focus of Dr. Nerem's laboratory is cellular and tissue engineering as applied to the vascular system. The projects range from understanding the role of flow and the associated shear stress on vascular endothelial biology, the influence of cyclic stretch on smooth muscle cell biology, and the tissue engineering of blood vessel substitutes. He served as president of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine President from 1991-1994. Dr. Nerem received the American Society for Engineering Education Theo C. Pilkington Outstanding Educator Award in 1998. He is an elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 and to the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences in 1992.

 

LAWRENCE T. PAPAY has retired as the Sector Vice President for the Integrated Solutions Sector at SAIC. He was responsible for business dealing with the integration of technology in the energy, environment and information areas for a variety of governmental and commercial clients worldwide. Prior to joining SAIC, Larry was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bechtel Technology & Consulting, and was responsible for monitoring new technologies and developing new businesses employing those technologies, including technological developments that impact existing business lines as well as the engineering and construction business in general. Prior to that he was a Senior Vice President at Southern California Edison where he had a variety of responsibilities over his 21 year career including R&D, Engineering, Power Operations, Nuclear Power and System Planning.

 

Dr. Papay received a B.S. in Physics from Fordham University in 1958, a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT in 1965, and a Sc.D. in Nuclear Engineering, MIT in 1969. He is a nationally recognized authority in engineering, science and technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and serves on its Board of Councillors. He also chairs the California Council for Science and Technology. He currently serves or has served on numerous special committees, panels, boards and task forces including the Department of Energy’s Laboratory Operations Board, the Department of Homeland Security’s S&T Advisory Committee as well as the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, National Science Foundation, National Research Council, Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, American Nuclear Society, and Electric Power Research Institute. He is registered Professional Engineer (Nuclear) in California.

SUSAN C. SCRIMSHAW, Ph.D., is Interim president of The Sage Colleges. She moved to Sage after serving as President of Simmons College.

 

President Scrimshaw, an internationally respected public health scholar, was formerly dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health and professor of community health sciences and anthropology at UIC.

 

President Scrimshaw is frequently honored for her work in raising awareness of public health issues around the world, including minority populations in the United States. Her awards include a gold medal as a "Hero of Public Health" presented by the president of Mexico, and the Margaret Mead Award of the American Anthropological Association. She is a member of the governing council of the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, whose members are chosen for making "major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health," and she is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.

 

President Scrimshaw is the author of five books or monographs and 65 journal articles and book chapters. Her interdisciplinary research has focused on gender, race, ethnicity, and culture, and their impact on public health. Her research includes community participatory research methods, addressing health disparities, improving pregnancy outcomes, violence prevention, health literacy, and culturally appropriate delivery of health care.

President Scrimshaw is past president of the Society for Medical Anthropology, a member and past chair of the national Association of Schools of Public Health, and a member of the board of directors of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science, which advocates for scientific collaboration between the two countries. She recently chaired the Institute of Medicine's committee on Improving the Health of Diverse Populations. She has served on the institute's panel on Health Literacy, its board on International Health, and its panel on Cancer Research among Minorities and the Medically Underserved. She was a founding member of the task force on Community Preventive Services of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

President Scrimshaw recently was awarded the Illinois Public Health Association's highest honor, the 2006 Distinguished Service Award, in recognition of her distinguished service in research, teaching, and public health practice. Under her tenure at UIC, its School of Public Health nearly doubled its overall budget and set new academic standards, while increasing enrollment 50 percent, with a 50 percent population of diverse students—making it one of the most diverse schools of public health in the nation.

 

The School of Public Health at UIC, in concert with then-dean Scrimshaw, established one of the first of four Bioterrorism Preparedness Centers funded by the Center for Disease Control two years prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and she led her school in a national role in responding to the catastrophe. As chair of the Association of Schools of Public Health, she led negotiations with the federal government after Sept. 11 to fund 22 such centers nationwide, which now number more than 30.

 

Under her leadership, the UIC School of Public Health established a wide range of community, regional, and national partnership initiatives, including addressing disparities in the delivery of health care, improving pregnancy outcomes, maternal and child health, healthy aging, violence prevention, cancer prevention, AIDS/STD prevention, and occupational and environmental health issues.

 

President Scrimshaw spent her formative years in Guatemala, where her father, Nevin Scrimshaw, M.D., Ph.D., a renowned public health doctor and international nutritionist, took her to work with him in rural villages as he established a nutrition institute for the World Health Organization. When she was 16, the family moved to Newton, Mass. Nevin Scrimshaw established the M.I.T. Department of Nutrition and Food Science, and was the 1991 World Food Prize Laureate for alleviating hunger and malnutrition in developing nations. He and Susan Scrimshaw are the first father-daughter members of the Institute of Medicine.

 

WILLIAM J. SPENCER became Chairman Emeritus of SEMATECH in 2000, where he had earlier served as President and CEO of the government-private semiconductor consortium. Before coming to SEMATECH, he was the Group Vice President for Research and senior technical officer for Xerox with responsibility for laboratories in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States including Xerox PARC. He joined Xerox to be the Director of Xerox PARC from Sandia where he was the Director of the California Weapons Program and earlier in Albuquerque was the Director of Microelectronics. He began his career at Bell Labs. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1987, and received a Doctor of Science degree from his alma mater William Jewell College where he has an AB in Physical Education. He also received an MS in mathematics from Kansas State College and a PhD in physics from Kansas State University.

 

LYDIA THOMAS is president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board of trustees of Mitretek Systems Inc.  She is responsible for the general management and direction of the company’s overall technical, financial, and administrative activities.  Prior to joining Mitertek Systems, Dr. Thomas worked The MITRE Corporation for over 20 years, holding a series of technical and management positions, spanning the areas of energy, environment, health, and communications systems.  Dr. Thomas co-chaired the R&D Investment Panel for a Defense Science Board Summer Study on Defense Technology, and she served a three-year term on the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Defense Department’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.  She was recently appointed to serve as a member of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, and also serves on the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission, the Virginia Governor’s Higher Education Summit Steering Committee, the Board of Directors of the Cabot Corporation, and the United States Energy Association.  She has recently joined the Northern Virginia Technology Council as a member of the Board of Directors.  She is a trustee of George Washington University and a Corporate Member of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.  In 2005 Dr. Thomas was recognized as one of The Most Important Blacks in Technology.  She was also recognized as one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science in 2004.  Dr. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Cytology from Howard University; an MS in Microbiology from American University; and a BS in Zoology from Howard University. She has appeared as an expert witness on behalf of the U.S. government at various public hearings and before the U.S. Congress; and has co-authored one book and written many technical reports.

 

MICHAEL S. TURNER is the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at The University of Chicago. He also holds appointments in the Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute at Chicago and is member of the scientific staff at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Turner received his B.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (1971) and his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University (1978). His association with The University of Chicago began in 1978 as an Enrico Fermi Fellow and in 1980 he joined the faculty. Since 1979 Turner has been involved in the Aspen Center for Physics and served as its President from 1989 to 1993.

 

Turner is a Fellow of the APS and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been honored with the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the Halley Lectureship at Oxford University, the Klopsteg Lecture Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at Chicago. Turner has given more than 200 public lectures, from Kathmandu to Singapore and even Chicago, and his unique transparencies were featured in a one-man show at the CfPA Gallery.

 

Turner's research focuses on the earliest moments of the Universe. He was one of the first to appreciate the deep connections between particle physics and cosmology, and helped to pioneer this interdisciplinary area of research which is thriving today. With Edward Kolb and David Schramm, Turner established the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab and with Kolb co-authored the monograph, The Early Universe. Turner has made also important contributions to inflationary Universe theory, understanding of dark matter and the origin of structure, and his current research focuses on the dark energy that this is causing the Universe to speed up.

Turner is a cosmologist, and he has made important contributions to inflationary Universe theory, understanding of dark matter and the origin of structure. Turner and Edward Kolb helped to establish the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab and wrote the monograph, The Early Universe. Eleven of Turner's former students and postdocs hold faculty positions at universities in Canada and the US.

 

CHARLES M. VEST is president of the National Academy of Engineering and vice chair of the National Research Council, the principal operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. He is also President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a past and present member of many government task forces and advisory committees that have helped shape national and international policies on research, science, education, and national security.

Dr. Vest became the fifteenth president of MIT on October 15, 1990. During his 14-year tenure as president, he added a strong international dimension to education and research programs, strengthened relations with industry, increased racial and cultural diversity at MIT, and rebuilt public understanding and support for higher education and research. Prior to assuming the presidency of MIT, Dr. Vest was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan.

During his early career in mechanical engineering, his research focused on thermal sciences and the engineering applications of lasers and coherent optics. His pioneering work included the development of techniques to obtain 3-D holographic interferograms of refractive indices in thermal flows. He is the author of numerous papers on these subjects and one book, Holographic Interferometry. He has also written two books on higher education and research.

From 1990 to 1999, Dr. Vest served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Economic Growth and Technology, and in 1993 and 1994 he chaired the President’s Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station. He has been a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology since 1994, and from 2002 to 2003 he chaired the U.S. Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of Science Programs. In February 2004, President Bush appointed him a member of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (the Robb-Silberman Commission). He was also a member of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (the Spellings Commission), which issued its report in September 2006, and he is currently a member of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy and the Rice-Chertoff Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee.

Dr. Vest was elected a member of NAE in 1993 and served as an NAE councillor from 2005 until his recent election as president. He has also been a member of several NAE, NRC, and National Academies committees, including the authoring committee of the recent influential report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm. In 2000 he was awarded the NAE Arthur M. Bueche Award for “outstanding university leadership, commitment and effectiveness in helping mold government policy in support of research, and forging linkages between academia and industry.”

Dr. Vest is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Association for Women in Science and a member of Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma, and Sigma Xi. Among his most recent awards are the ABET President’s Award from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology in 2002 and the Phillip Hauge Abelson Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006. He has also received 10 honorary degrees.

NANCY S. WEXLER, Ph.D., is Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, as well as the President of the Hereditary Disease Foundation. Involved in public policy, individual counseling, genetic research, and federal health administration, she is most widely known for her important scientific contribution on Huntington’s disease. A 20-year study of the world’s largest family with Huntington’s disease, in Venezuela, developing a pedigree of over 18,000 individuals and collecting over 4,000 blood samples helped lead to the identification of the Hungtington’s disease gene at the tip of human chromosome 4. These same blood samples have assisted in the mapping of other disease genes, including those responsible for familial Alzheimer’s disease, kidney cancer, two kinds of neurofibromatosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), dwarfism and others. One result of this work was the development of a presymptomatic test which could tell who is carrying the fatal gene prior to the onset of symptoms.

 

Wexler received an A.B. from Radcliffe in 1967 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974. She currently holds or has held numerous public policy positions, including Chair of the Joint NIH/DOE Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Working Group of the National Center for Human Genome Research, Chair of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and Member of the Institute of Medicine. Wexler has served as a member of the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on the Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health, NIH. She has received numerous honors and awards, including several honorary doctorates.

 

Dr. Wexler was recently elected to be a Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians; a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Arts; and to the position of Councilor, Society for Neuroscience. She is an honorary Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a Member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. In 1993, she received the Albert Lasker Public Service Award.