BISO Home > Board Membership and Staff > Biographical Sketches of BISO Board Members

Biographical Sketches of BISO Board Members

Cutberto Garza is Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculties at Boston College. Former vice-provost at Cornell University, he served as director of Cornell’s Division of Nutritional Sciences, which includes the fields of molecular genetics, sociology and economics. Having served as the Director of the Food and Nutrition Program of the United Nations University since 1998, Dr. Garza has worked to improve global food and nutrition efforts. He currently serves on the Committee on Identifying and Assessing Unintended Effects of Genetically Engineered Foods on Human Health; the International Nutrition Forum at the Institute of Medicine; and the WHO International Infant and Young Child Growth Reference Multicenter Study Group. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Garza's research interests are centered on adaptations made by young children and pregnant and lactating women to diverse planes of nutritional well-being. He received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Garza was chair of the Food and Nutrition Board, which functions as the national committee to the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Marvin Geller is Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is currently the president of SCOSTEP -- the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Dr. Geller is nominated to serve as a member. He has been active in a number of NRC committees since 1987 and currently serves on the Committee on Strategic Guidance for NSF's Support of Atmospheric Sciences. His current research interests include using atmospheric general circulation models, mechanistic models, and data analysis to better understand interannual variability in tropical upwelling through the tropopause and its effect on stratospheric water vapor; using high resolution radiosonde data to characterize atmospheric gravity wave activity and better understand the sources for this activity; and using models together with data assimilation techniques to better characterize and understand stratospheric ozone losses that have occurred. Dr. Geller received his Ph.D. in 1969 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Daniel L. Goroff is currently a Program Director at Alfred Sloan Foundation in New York.  Prior to that, he served as vice president and Dean of the Faculty at Harvey Mudd College.  Dr. Goroff is a past chair and member of the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction and has distinguished himself as a leader in mathematics and science education and in its advocacy.  In addition to his faculty roles, he served as associate director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and as a tutor at Harvard's Leverett House. His interests are in dynamical systems and Hamiltonian mechanics mathematical history, philosophy, and education.  Dr. Goroff received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984.

Priscilla Grew is Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History. She is also Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and teaches a large undergraduate course on Geology of National Parks. Since 1998 she has also served as UNL’s NAGPRA Coordinator for repatriation of human remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. She was Vice Chancellor for Research at UNL from 1993 to 1999. Since 1989, Dr. Grew has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. Currently she is also a member of the Education and Outreach Steering Committee of the NSF-funded EarthScope project administered by the Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology (IRIS). She chairs the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and is Vice Chair of the U.S. National Committee for DIVERSITAS. Dr. Grew was Director of the Minnesota Geological Survey at the University of Minnesota from 1986 to 1993. She served as a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1981 to 1986, and as Director of the California Department of Conservation from 1977 to 1981. Prior to 1981, she taught geology and environmental studies at Boston College, UCLA and the University of California at Davis. Dr. Grew graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1962 with a B.A. magna cum laude in geology and earned her Ph.D. in geology in 1967 from the University of California at Berkeley.

Melinda Kimble is Senior Vice President at the United Nations Foundation. She oversees the program areas of health, population, the environment, and peace/human rights. Ms. Kimble joined the UN Foundation in May 2000. Prior to that, she served as a State Department Foreign Service Officer, attaining the rank of Minister-Counselor. Ms. Kimble served in policy-level positions in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, overseeing multilateral development issues and debt policy, and in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environment and Scientific Affairs, leading environmental negotiations (e.g, Climate Change Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 1997). Ms. Kimble's assignments abroad include Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, and Tunisia. She speaks French and Arabic and holds two masters degrees: economics (University of Denver) and MPA (Harvard's Kennedy School of Government).

Dennis Ojima is Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and an Assistant Professor in the Rangeland Ecosystem Science Department at Colorado State University.  His research activities address ecological issues related to global and regional land use and climate changes on ecosystem dynamics; studies of the interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere; the impact of changes in land management on trace gas exchange; and the development of a global ecosystem model.  Dr. Ojima is a current member of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, and a past member of the U.S. National Committee for SCOPE and of the NRC's Committee on Extending Observations and Research Results to Practical Applications: A Review of NASA's Approach. Dr. Ojima received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1987.

Kennedy Reed is a Theoretical Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where his research focuses primarily on atomic collisions in high temperature plasmas.  He is a member of the U.S. Liaison Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and is also Chair of the IUPAP Commission on Physics for Development.  Dr. Reed has served as Vice-Chair of the American Physical Society (APS) Committee on International Scientific Affairs, and has been awarded the APS John Wheatley Award for his contributions to Physics Research and Education in Africa.  The California Section of the American Physical Society annually presents a student award that is named in honor of Dr. Reed.  He is also a recipient of the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.  Dr. Reed is a Fellow of the American Physical Society; Charter Fellow, National Society of Black Physicists; member, Optical Society of America; and member, American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He received his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Nebraska in 1978.

Frank Richter (NAS) is the Sewell Avery Distinguished Service Professor, Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago. Recommended to BISO by Ralph Cicerone, he is nominated to serve as a member.  Dr. Richter has been a member of the NAS Geology Section since 2001.  He is noted for combining theory and experiments to develop quantitative geophysical and geochemical models rich enough to shed some light on actual geological phenomena.  His recent research involves laboratory experiments to determine the degree of kinetic isotope fractionation associated with mass transport processes within a phase (i.e., chemical diffusion in a silicate melt or water) or between phases as in the case of mass transfer from a condensed phase to a gas (i.e., evaporation).   Finding diagnostic isotopic fingerprints of particular transport processes would allow confirmation and quantification of their operation in a natural setting.  He received his Ph.D. in Geophysics from The University Chicago in 1972.

John Rumble is Technical Director of Information International Associates, Inc. Previously he was with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for nearly a quarter of a century. Dr. Rumble’s expertise is in scientific data management and scientific informatics. He is Past-President of CODATA following the completion of a four-year term as President in 2002. Dr. Rumble is a Fellow of the American Society for Testing and Materials, a Fellow of ASM International, a member of the Russian Federation Academy of Metrology, a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and recipient of the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal. Dr. Rumble holds a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Indiana University.

Karen B. Strier is a Hilldale Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin.  Dr. Strier is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a past member of the USNC/International Union of Biological Sciences. An authority on the behavioral ecology of the endangered northern muriqui monkeys of Brazil, her research efforts have been critical to conservation efforts on behalf of this species, and she has been influential in broadening comparative perspectives of primate behavioral and ecological diversity, as well as the evolution of variation in behavior.  She received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1986.

Tilahun D. Yilma is Professor of Virology and Director, International Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Tropical Disease Agents, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis.  Dr. Yilma is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a current member of the NAS International Temporary Nominating Group for Class VI: Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Science and the 2009 NAS Class VI Membership Committee.  Dr. Yilma is an immunologist whose research has focused on the development of recombinant vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits for the viral diseases of animals and humans.  This work has produced the knowledge and the biotechnology required for the global eradication of rinderpest, a virus infecting cattle that has threatened the economies of developing countries in Asia and Africa.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1977.

Staff Director

Kathie Bailey Mathae, Director of the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO), began her career at the National Academies in February 2005 when she joined BISO as a Program Officer.  After serving as Senior Program Officer and BISO’s Deputy Director, she was appointed Director in May 2007.  Her responsibilities to date have included six U.S. National Committees (USNCs) in math and physical sciences, as well as visa and export control policy.  Prior coming to the National Academies, Ms. Bailey Mathae worked for the Association of American Universities for 14 years.  Prior to that, she worked for Congresswoman Lindy Boggs (D-LA) as associate staff for VA-HUD appropriations and special projects assistant.  Ms. Bailey Mathae has a B.A. from Milligan College and a J.D. from Tulane University. 

To comment on this Web page or report an error, please send feedback to BISO Site Manager.    Revised November 2, 2009