Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie Named to President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer have been named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council is comprised 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,” said President Obama. “I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation.”

Schmidt and Mundie join the following members named to PCAST:

• John Holdren, serving as co-chair of PCAST, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Eric Lander, serving as a co-chair of PCAST, 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
• Harold Varmus, serving as co-chair of PCAST, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• 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

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