Caltech chemical physicist and Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail (left) and alumnus Bill Press of the University of Texas have been named to President Obama’s 20-member council of advisors on science and technology.

Appointees to Obama’s scientific advisory council discuss goals, reflect on new roles

Well before taking office, President Barack Obama announced his aim of paying attention to scientists when setting policy. And, in late April, he offered an indication of how he plans to “restore science to its rightful place” by appointing several of the nation’s preeminent scientists and engineers to his science and technology advisory council, including a Caltech professor and an alumnus. Among the distinguished researchers named to the council are Caltech’s Ahmed Zewail, Nobel laureate, Pauling Professor of Chemistry, and professor of physics; and William H. Press, PhD ’73, Raymer Professor of Computer Sciences and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Officially called the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the group advises the president and vice president “in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people,” according to the White House Office of the Press Secretary.

“This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views,” Obama said in a press release. “I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation.”

Bill Press should be able to provide input in multiple areas. A computer scientist and computational biologist, he began his scientific career as a theoretical astrophysicist, serving for more than 20 years as a professor of astronomy and physics at Harvard and then as the deputy laboratory director for science and technology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory before moving to Texas in 2004. Speaking from Austin, Press, who is also a senior fellow (emeritus) at Los Alamos, said, “I am especially proud of, but also especially humbled by, this appointment. These are times when many, if not most, key policy issues raise major science and technology issues. In our initial meeting, the president made clear that he expects, and will give weight to, advice from PCAST on all such issues.”

Press’s current research is in bioinformatics—which applies the tools and techniques of information science to molecular biology—and whole genome studies, surveying the entire human genome to identify and characterize specific genes associated with various diseases, disorders, and other inherited traits. Raised in Pasadena, he received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard before getting his PhD in physics from Caltech.

Zewail, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Alexandria University in Egypt before getting his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, has also pursued a multidisciplinary career—at Caltech, he holds a joint appointment in chemistry and physics. Currently investigating structural dynamics in chemistry and biology with a focus on the physics of elementary processes in complex systems, Zewail was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering research in the field of femtosecond spectroscopy, an ultrafast laser technique that made it possible to carry out real-time observations of how molecular bonds form and break during chemical reactions.

“This council is significant in view of the fact that the president is very much interested in being directly involved with the critical issues,” Zewail said. “Every committee has its own niche, and the purpose of this committee is to serve the national interests of leadership in science and innovation. So there is no better opportunity in terms of offering my perspectives. I am deeply honored to serve in such a capacity.”

The committee, which will meet about six times a year, will take up a wide variety of science-related issues, but both Zewail and Press said that there were particular matters that they plan to raise.

Said Press, “Aside from the economy, which is clearly this administration’s most pressing issue, the president has set out ambitious agendas in energy, climate, environment, health care, science education, international security, and nonproliferation—to mention just some issues with big technical components. Obviously PCAST hopes to contribute on all of these. My background makes me particularly interested in contributing to the latter three on this list.”

The top three issues on Zewail’s agenda are education and culture, science and innovation, and energy. He is looking forward to being actively engaged in all three areas, among the others with which PCAST is charged.

“We associate California with widespread innovation, but innovation cannot continue without having a quality educational base,” he said. “And I think that in recent years, overall, we have not been doing too well in this country with regard to education. We need to rethink how we provide the most effective education in a 21st-century world to American students. We’ve got to find a way to excite our students about science, and to continue to welcome the most highly qualified foreign scientists. Support of curiosity-driven and creative basic research is essential for innovation and long-term leadership in the world.

“Another important issue is energy,” Zewail said. “The world population is about six billion, and soon we will run out of oil, leaving insufficient resources for people on this planet. America and the world are in need of breakthroughs that identify new directions for the energy problem, and it seems to me that we should be moving ahead essentially on all possible fronts, including solar power, geothermal power, and biofuels. And, we may be pleasantly surprised by previously unanticipated new discoveries resulting from creative research.

“There are other issues that relate to the future of space programs and world stability that force us to think of climate change, weapons threat, and problems such as fanaticism and the spread of diseases. These are complex issues that require new perspectives, and hopefully PCAST can formulate the questions and frame some answers. President Obama wishes to address these critical issues. So, I am optimistic.”

PCAST is cochaired by John Holdren, a former Harvard professor and director of the Woods Hole Research Center, who also serves as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. His cochairs are Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and a leader in the human genome project, and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former director of the National Institutes of Health.