President Obama has named Rosina Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, to the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST).
PCAST consists of 20 of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers. They advise the president and vice president directly to help the administration formulate policy in areas where understanding of science, technology and innovation is key to forming responsible and effective policy.
Obama made the announcement in a speech to the National Academies. He called the newly named advisers a stellar team of experts who will help advance his agenda to reinvigorate the economy.
“I am honored to serve on the council and contribute to its deliberations on behalf of the nation,” said Bierbaum, who came to U-M in October 2001 to lead SNRE.
Bierbaum currently is on a yearlong sabbatical to direct the World Development Report, the World Bank’s annual synthesis of a key topic, with advice for the next decade. For the first time, this report will focus on climate change and development, helping nations think about how sustainability, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and development can be achieved simultaneously.
PCAST includes three Nobel laureates, two university presidents, four MacArthur Prize fellows and 14 individuals who are elected members of one or more of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bierbaum has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
PCAST will be co-chaired by John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, president and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate.
Members of PCAST other than Holdren are not regular employees of the government. They are presidential appointees and are not compensated for their service. Their two-year appointments are renewable and effective immediately.
Today’s announcement marks the third time a presidential administration has called upon Bierbaum to help advance and define aspects of its science agenda.
Bierbaum, who spent 20 years in public service at the federal level, was named by the Obama Transition Office last fall to serve on its Agency Review Team for OSTP. The team provided direction on a range of issues, including the restoration of science integrity and how best to achieve that goal.
Bierbaum served as the Senate-confirmed director for environment at OSTP during the Clinton administration and as acting director of the agency into the first months of the George W. Bush administration.
Earlier this spring, Bierbaum was selected as a science role model to young women and invited to attend the signing ceremony for the creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls.
Since her arrival at SNRE, Bierbaum has overseen the creation of a new undergraduate program in the environment; enhanced interdisciplinary teaching and research by successfully recruiting 13 new faculty, eight of whom hold joint appointments in other U-M colleges; developed a new master of science track to link business, engineering and natural resources; tripled research activity; and expanded the mission of the school to include global change.
