Google CEO Eric Schmidt turned down a position in Obama’s organization last year, but the search engine guru seems to be stepping up to the plate now. Scmidt and Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie have been included in the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). This council is made up of scientists and engineers who will advise President and Vice President on policy involving science, technology, and innovation.
“This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views,” President Obama stated. “I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation.”
Schmidt and Mundie join John Holdren (Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy), Eric Lander (Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Professor of Biology at MIT, Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research ) and Harold Varmus, (President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) , all co chairs for the new PCAST. Other members include:
Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
Christine Cassel, President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine
Christopher Chyba, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences
S. James Gates Jr., John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland
Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999)
Richard Levin, President of Yale University
Chad Mirkin, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University, and Director of Northwestern’s International Institute of Nanotechnology
Mario Molina, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment in Mexico City
Ernest J. Moniz, Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT
William Press, Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
Maxine Savitz, vice-president of the National Academy of Engineering, retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation in the US Department of Energy
Barbara Schaal is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St Louis and Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences
Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
David E. Shaw, chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, LLC, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies
Ahmed Zewail, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center