FAS Board News

On December 8, 2003, FAS held its semi-annual Board of Director’s meeting. The meeting was led by new Chair Tara O’Toole, who was elected by the membership in August 2003. Also joining the group was newly elected Vice-Chair Steven Weinberg; three newly elected members: Eamon Kelly, Arthur Rosenfeld, and Richard Wald; and the three newly appointed members: François Castaing, David Foster, and Kumar Patel.

The combination of new and incumbent board members gives FAS a spectacular and diverse Board. The FAS staff has great expectations about what we can do together in the next few years. We are proud to introduce the new members of the FAS Board of Directors:

François J. Castaing is former Vice President and Executive Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Chrysler Corporation. Mr. Castaing currently serves on the Boards of Exide Technologies, Amerigon, Durakon Industries, NextEnergy, and FIRST. He is the chairman of the New Detroit Science Center and the University Cultural Center Association in Detroit, Michigan, and Chairman Emeritus of the French-American Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Chapter. Additionally, Mr. Castaing is a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Fellow and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

David L. Foster is President of IOMA, a professional education and training publisher, which he founded in 1982 in New York City. He is also on the Boards of three other publishing companies: BNA, Pike & Fischer, Inc., and Kennedy Information. Mr. Foster is the Vice Chair of the Board of Bates College in Lewiston, ME, serving on its investment, budget, large gifts, and honorary degree committees. He’s also on the finance committee of Symphony Space, the arts organization that produces NPR’s Selected Shorts, among other programming.

Eamon Michael Kelly is President Emeritus and Professor in the Payson Center for International Development & Technology Transfer at Tulane University. Dr. Kelly is the former Chairman of both the Association of American Universities and the Satellite Working Group. His current teaching and research interests focus on the role of science and technology, especially information technology, in the developing world.

Tara O’Toole has been elected our new chair. Dr. O’Toole is a Boardcertified internist and occupational medicine physician with clinical experience in academic settings and community health centers. Dr. O’Toole is currently heading up the new Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Previously, she served as Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies and Public Health Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is co-editor in chief of the new journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism – Biodefense Strategy, Practice and Science.

Kumar Patel is a founder of Pranalytica, a medical instrumentation and communications equipment company. He has taught as a Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA, where he was also Vice Chancellor of Research. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Laser Institute of America, and the Association for Advancement of Arts and Sciences.

Arthur H. Rosenfeld is Commissioner to the California Energy Commission, where he the presiding member of the Research, Development and Demonstration Committee and the Dynamic Pricing Committee and second member of the Energy Efficiency Committee. From 1994-1999, Dr. Rosenfeld served as Senior Advisor for the US Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Richard C. Wald is the Fred Friendly Professor of Media and Society at Columbia University and a consultant to ABC News. In addition, Mr. Wald is a member of the advisory board of the Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, a member of the Board of Visitors of the School of Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a member of the Board of the Correspondents Fund and the Center for Communication. He is also the Chairman of the Board of the Columbia Daily Spectator, the Columbia College daily newspaper.

Stephen Weinberg has been elected our new Vice-Chair. He is the Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science and Regental Professor and the Director of the Theory Research Group at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Weinberg and two of his colleagues earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979. He is the author of six books and over 200 scientific articles on elementary particle physics, cosmology and other subjects, one of which is the most frequently cited paper on particle physics of the past fifty years. He also writes for The New York Review of Books and other periodicals.

The incumbent members are:

Rosina Bierbaum is Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, as well as a Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy. Dr. Bierbaum is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and serves on the National Academy of Science’s Board on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate. Dr. Bierbaum has published widely in professional journals and continues to lecture frequently on natural resources management and global change.

Richard L. Garwin is Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York and IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. Dr. Garwin is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a long-time member of Pugwash and has served on the Pugwash Council. Dr. Garwin is co-author of many books, including his most recent, Managing the Plutonium Surplus: Applications and Technical Options (1994). He is a 2003 recipient of the National Medal of Science.

Lawrence Grossman is former president of NBC News and PBS, an advertising agency owner, holder of the Frank Stanton First Amendment Chair at the Kennedy School of Government, and senior fellow and visiting scholar at Columbia University. He currently serves as co-chairman of the Digital Promise Project, and as trustee of Connecticut Public Broadcasting and various nonprofit health organizations. Mr. Grossman also serves as a television columnist for Columbia Journalism Review and as a Dupont-Columbia Journalism Award juror. He is the author of The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age (1996).

Jane Dale Owen serves as the President of the Houston-based nonprofit organization Citizens League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN). Ms. Owen has been actively involved as a Board member of the Blaffer Gallery, has served on the Executive Committee of the Moores School of Music, University of Houston and serves on the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Film Committee. Ms. Owen is also an avid supporter of the Houston SPCA and Planned Parenthood. She has worked with numerous agencies including the EPA, Harris County Pollution Control, local citizen groups, Sierra Club, Citizen Environmental Coalition, and business and industrial leaders.

Judith Reppy is Professor of Science & Technology Studies and Associate Director of the Peace Studies Program at Cornell. Dr. Reppy has studied the economics of defense, security and peace for many years. She also researches and teaches Ethical, Legal & Social Issues with the Cornell Genomics Initiative, where her current research focus is on the role of standards in technology transfer between industrialized and developing countries.

Shankar Sastry is the NEC Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and Bioengineering and Chair of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences EECS at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is an Associate Editor of the IMA Journal of Mathematical Control and Information, the International Journal of Adaptive and Optimal Control, and the new Journal of Sensors and Biomimetic Systems. Dr. Sastry’s recent work focuses on the development of a "Digital Human," an open architecture digital simulation of the human body currently underway at the National Science Foundation in cooperation with several other leading research institutions, including FAS.

Maxine Savitz advises on R&D management, energy and environmental policy, materials development, and technology transfer with the Washington Advisory Group. Her areas of expertise also include energy efficiency in the transportation, industry, and buildings sectors, aerospace technology, and integration of R&D between laboratories and business units. Dr. Savitz is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the AAAS, the National Science Board, and advisory bodies for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. Savitz also serves on the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

Jonathan Silver is the founder and a Managing Director of Core Capital Partners, a private equity fund which invests in early-stage technology companies and provides expansion capital for technology-driven small and midsized operating companies. Mr. Silver has held senior positions in both the public and private sector. He currently serves on the Boards of the EarthSat Corporation, CorrFlex Graphics, and Core Communications, as well as the Board of American Forests, People for the American Way, the Baltimore-Washington Venture Group, and the Arena Stage Theatre.

Gregory Simon, J.D. is President of the Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, as well as Chair of Infotech Strategies, an information and communications technology consulting firm. Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. Simon served as Staff Director of the Investigations Subcommittee of the House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee; he then went on to become Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore. While working on the Hill and at the White House, Mr. Simon worked on a number of health, space, and biotechnology policy initiatives.

The country faces a formidable set of challenges in national security, education, environment, and other areas where the scientific and engineering community can make critical contributions. FAS has an exciting portfolio of projects that can help ensure these contributions are made effectively and delivered where and when they’re most needed. The FAS staff is confident that our new Board will help us address these issues and reach our goals. We welcome our new and incumbent members and look forward to their future support and leadership.