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President’s Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology (PCAST)
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Overview of PCAST
• Beginning in 1933 with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Science Advisory
Board, each President has established an advisory committee of scientists,
engineers, and health professionals.
• Today’s PCAST is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and
engineers, appointed by the President to augment the science and
technology advice available to him from inside the White House and from
cabinet departments and other federal agencies.
• PCAST is consulted about and often makes policy recommendations
concerning the full range of issues where understandings from the
domains of science, technology, and innovation bear potentially on the
policy choices before the President.
• PCAST is administered by the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP).
• PCAST anticipates meeting six times per year.
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President’s Council of Advisors on Science
and Technology
Co-Chairs
• John P. Holdren
• Eric Lander
• Harold Varmus
Members
• Rosina Bierbaum
• Christine Cassel
• Christopher Chyba
• S. James Gates, Jr.
• Shirley Ann Jackson
• Richard C. Levin
• Chad Mirkin
• Mario Molina
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Ernest J. Moniz
Craig Mundie
Ed Penhoet
William Press
Maxine Savitz
Barbara Schaal
Eric Schmidt
Daniel Schrag
David E. Shaw
Ahmed Zewail
Staff
• Deborah Stine
• Mary Maxon
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PCAST Subcommittees
• Health and Life Sciences
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Education
• Interdisciplinary Aspects of Science and Technology
• Energy, Climate Change, and Environment
• Innovation and Technology
• Economic Development
• International Security
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PCAST Studies
• Provide advice to President on scientific and technological issues of
highest importance concerning security, welfare, and health of nation
• In situations requiring:
– Integrative perspective across agencies and departments
– Independent perspective or
– Additional expert capacity
• PCAST will establish ad hoc working groups of experts, co-chaired by
PCAST members, to provide information and advice directly to the
PCAST.
• PCAST will then issue a report with its findings and recommendations
based on the working group analysis.
• Goal is to complete most studies in 3-6 months. Some studies will be
completed more quickly in response to Administration needs.
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Some Possible PCAST Studies
• Enabling the Creation of New Industries: Identify opportunities,
funding, and development strategies for new “innovation platforms” that
could propel the creation of new industries, as well as identifying
situations where establishing new standards (such as network standards)
could unleash potential for new businesses and accelerated growth.
• Health Information Technology: Ensure ongoing innovation in health IT
systems to improve the quality and reduce the costs of healthcare.
• Role of S&T in Foreign Affairs: Identify opportunities for harnessing the
nation’s science and technology resources to enhance U.S. relations with
other nations and respond to health, environmental, energy, and other
societal challenges on a global scale.
Some Possible PCAST Studies
(continued)
• STEM Education: Contribute suggestions toward a coherent federal
strategy for STEM education at both the K-12 and college/university levels
to ensure the nation has the scientists, engineers, and workforce
necessary to be economically competitive in the 21st century as well as
the STEM-literate electorate that effective democracy will require in an
era when many policy issues have science and technology content.
• Carbon Offsets: Summarize and clarify the science relevant to accounting
for carbon uptake and release in agricultural and other ecosystems and
identify implications for the implementation of carbon-offset programs to
help mitigate climate change.
• Nanotechnology: Assess progress of National Nanotechnology Initiative
and identify additional opportunities moving forward.
President Obama and S&T Diplomacy
• President Obama’s Cairo Speech: A New Beginning (June 2009)
• “On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support
technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help
transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs.
• We'll open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and
Southeast Asia, and appoint new science envoys to collaborate on
programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize
records, clean water, grow new crops.
• Today I'm announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the
Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand
partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal
health.
• All these things must be done in partnership.”
• Video and Translations Available on WhiteHouse.Gov Website in Arabic;
Chinese; Dari; French; Hebrew; Hindi; Indonesian; Malay; Pashto; Persian;
Portugese; Punjabi; Russian; Turkish; Urdu
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Secretary Clinton and S&T Diplomacy
• Secretary Clinton Marrakech, Morocco Speech (November 2009)
• “Our second area will be advancing science and technology, something
that we have heard from many of you, to help create jobs and to meet
global challenges. It’s not something you don’t know; it is your history. But
it was the Islamic world that led the way in science and medicine. It was
the Islamic world that paved the way for much of the technology and
science that we now take for granted. And now we face global challenges.
How do we address water issues? How do we solve the climate crisis?
How do we eradicate disease? Well, we want to look to your societies
and we want to help Muslim majority communities develop the capacity to
meet economic, social and ecological challenges through science,
technology, and innovation.”
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Secretary Clinton and Science Envoy
Program
• Secretary Clinton Marrakech, Morocco Speech (November 2009)
• “The State Department has established a science envoys program, and I’m
pleased to announce today that the first envoys will be three of America’s
leading scientists: Dr. Bruce Alberts, a former president of our National
Academy of Sciences; Dr. Elias Zerhouni, a former director of our
National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Ahmed Zewail, the Nobel Prizewinning chemist. Each of these men has agreed to travel to North Africa,
the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia to fulfill President Obama’s
mandate to foster scientific and technological collaboration.”
• “The State Department will also expand positions for environment,
science, technology, and health officers at our embassies. “
• “To finance these solutions, the United States Overseas Private
Investment Corporation known as OPIC is launching a technology and
innovation fund.”
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For More Information
See
http://www.ostp.gov/cs/pcast
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