BACKGROUND

Since February 1990, I have been head of the Directorate of Science and Policy Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC.  In this position, I am responsible for the Association's activities in science and technology policy and serve as a key spokesman on science policy issues.  AAAS, founded in 1848, is a professional organization with over 130,000 members and is the publisher of Science magazine.  Science and Policy is one of three program directorates at AAAS.  It has a staff of about 40 and is responsible for a wide range of activities including:
  • The AAAS Program in Science and Human Rights; 
  • Scientific Freedom, Responsibility, and Law Program; 
  • Policy Fellowships for Scientists and Engineers; 
  • The AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program; 
  • The Center for Science, Technology, and Congress; 
  • The Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion; and 
  • The Research Competitiveness Program. 
I have been with AAAS since 1980, first as manager of the R&D Budget and Policy Project, subsequently as head of the Office of Public Sector Programs (1984-89).  Before that I taught science and technology policy at George Washington University (from 1976 to 1980) and spent several years in teaching, research and administrative positions at the State University of New York (Binghamton and Albany) and at the Syracuse University Research Corporation (now Syracuse Research Corporation).  Recently, together with Dr. Annamaria Inzelt of Budapest University of Economics and Public Administration, I founded a Center for Innovation Policy Research and Education for Central and Eastern Europe.  The center, located in Budapest, offers mid-career training for policymakers from that region and is developing a program of graduate education and research.

I speak frequently on topics of science and technology policy and science, technology, and society, and I am the author of a variety of articles and editor of several books, including Technology and the Future, a widely-used textbook on technology and society, the eighth edition of which  has recently been published by Bedford/St. Martin's.

In May 2004, I received the Award for Scientific Achievement in Science Policy from the Washington Academy of Sciences.  Others who have received this award from the Academy in past years include Bill Phillips, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics while at the National Institute for Standards and Technology; Jane Goodall, the animal researcher and primatologist; and sociologist Amitai Etzioni.

I am a Fellow of AAAS; a member of the editorial advisory  boards to the journals, Science Communication;  Science, Technology, and Human Values; and Prometheus; and a consultant to government agencies, national laboratories, industrial firms, and international organizations. I chaired the advisory committee to the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Studies from 1987 through 1990 and am currently chair of the Advisory Board to the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, as well as member of the Research Advisory Board of the University of California at Davis, and the Norwegian Research and Technology Forum in the United States. 

My education includes a B.S. in Physics (1964) and a Ph.D. in Political Science (1969), both from MIT.
 
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Updated May 15, 2004