The White House has selected 30 science and technology experts to serve on a council that will advise the president on policy regarding future pandemics, climate change and other national challenges.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology includes experts in the fields of astrophysics, agriculture, biochemistry, computer engineering, ecology, immunology and cybersecurity.
The advisory panel is a direct descendent of the scientific committee President Dwight D. Eisenhower established in 1957 in the weeks after the Sputnik launch.
President Joe Biden's selections are among the most diverse in the panel's history, the White House said, adding that it's the first time women make up half of the panel. It's also the first time women are serving as co-chairs and the first time immigrants and people of color make up more than 30 percent of the group.
The group will be co-chaired by Eric Lander, PhD, the president's science adviser, alongside two external co-chairs. Dr. Lander is the president and founding director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in Cambridge, Mass. He served as an external advisory council co-chair during both of President Barack Obama's terms.
The external co-chairs for President Biden's advisory council are:
- Frances Arnold, PhD, a biochemical engineer who became the first U.S. woman to receive the Nobel Prize in chemistry for her role in leveraging evolution to create proteins.
- Maria Zuber, PhD, a geophysicist and planetary scientist who was the first woman to lead a NASA planetary mission.
The other 27 members include two physician-scientists: Sue Desmond-Hellman, MD, who led the development of the first gene-targeted drug for treating breast cancer; and Lisa Cooper, MD, an internal medicine physician who serves as the Bloomberg distinguished professor of equity in health and healthcare at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, as well as the director of its health equity center.
To view the full list of science and technology council members, click here.