Professor, alumni join Obama's science council

Three Princetonians are among President Obama’s picks for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Eric Lander ’78, director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Eric Schmidt ’76, chairman and chief executive of Google, and Wilson School professor Christopher Chyba, have all been appointed to serve on the council.

Lander, who learned of his appointment as one of the three co-chairs of PCAST in December, said he was “extraordinarily excited” when Obama announced the rest of the council at a meeting at the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. Lander added that though PCAST’s exact agenda has not yet been determined, he hopes to focus on energy, climate and healthcare issues.

Lander’s fellow co-chairs will be John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, the president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

“The president is committed to a long-term transformation of the American economy,” Lander said. “It’s going to take enormous scientific and technological progress.”

Lander added that the council will discuss ways to increase funding for health research to improve diagnoses and therapeutics.

“There is tremendous need in these two areas,” he said.

Still, he said he expects that PCAST will be tackling a wide range of issues, from web security to biologic security to space travel.

Schmidt echoed Lander’s sentiment. “It’s truly an honor to have been appointed by President Obama to join such a distinguished group of academics, scientists and industry leaders,” he said in an e-mail.

“Our job is to recommend ways in which technology and scientific innovation can be used to strengthen our economy and help the American people,” Schmidt noted. “I can’t think of a more important mission and I’m thrilled to play even a small part in that effort.”

Chyba was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

President Tilghman praised Obama’s selections, saying he made “very wise and compelling choices for members to serve on PCAST.”

“[Lander] is a brilliant scientist, whose leadership in the human genome project was instrumental in the success of that project,” Tilghman said in an e-mail, noting that she has known Lander for more than 20 years and collaborated with him on the early stages of the mouse genome project.  

“Eric Schmidt ’76 is one of the world’s most successful CEOs, having led Google since its very early days ... from a small start-up with a fabulous algorithm for searching the web to the highly influential and successful company it is today,” she added, noting that she is also a member of the Google board of trustees.

“Finally Professor Chyba is a marvelous example of a dedicated scientist who has turned his attention to ensuring that science is informing good public policy,” she continued. “The combination of these three individuals is a powerful one for PCAST.”

PCAST is “an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who will advise the President and Vice President and formulate policy 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 a White House statement.

In his announcement Monday, Obama said he will rely on PCAST to “advise [him] about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation.”

The first advisory group for the sciences in the United States was the Science Advisory Committee established by then-President Harry Truman in 1951.

Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the committee was expanded by Dwight Eisenhower, but former president Richard Nixon disbanded it entirely in 1972. PCAST was established in 1990 by George H. W. Bush.

Lander said he hopes the Obama administration will foster advancements similar to those made in the United States during the Sputnik generation.

“We’re now seeing the president making a commitment to reinvest in that same kind of bold way in science and education,” Lander said, adding that serving on PCAST is the equivalent of a part-time job and that he will continue teaching while serving on the council.

“I’m sure it will take many extra hours from all of us,” Lander said. He added, however, “Given the extraordinary challenges that the country is facing at this time, everyone is willing to work much harder to answer the national call of service.”