Initiatives
What's New
Research Corporation for Science Advancement is creating a new program, Scialog, to promote innovative, boundary-crossing research on subjects of global concern. A presidential advisory panel has been named to provide scientific advice and perspective on this new endeavor as well as RCSA's established programs.
Presidential Advisory Board
Vicki Chandler
Vicki Chandler is the Carl E. and Patricia Weiler Endowed Chair for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Sciences, a regents' professor in the departments of plant sciences and molecular and cellular biology, and the director of the BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona. She received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. Chandler has conducted pioneering research on the control of gene expression in plants and animals. She has received numerous honors and awards including a Presidential Young Investigator Award, Searle Scholar Award, the NSF Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers, and the NIH Director's Pioneer Award. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002 and has served extensively on national advisory boards and panels for NSF, DOE, NIH and HHMI. She served on the NSF Biological Directorate Advisory Committee from 2001-2004 and on the NRC Committee on Defining and Advancing the Conceptual Basis of Biological Science. She has chaired or co-chaired national conferences for Keystone, FASEB, and the Gordon Research Conferences, serving on the GRC board of trustees, and in 2001 as chair of the board. Chandler was elected to the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology Board of Directors, 1999-2003, and elected president of the American Society of Plant Biologists, 2001-02. In 2007 she was elected to the Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Robert Full
Robert Full, Ph.D., completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY Buffalo in 1979, and went on to graduate work at SUNY Buffalo, receiving a master's degree in 1982 and a doctoral degree in 1984. From 1984 to 1986 he held a research and teaching postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago. During that time he did research at Harvard University. In 1986 Full joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, as an assistant professor of zoology. He was promoted to associate professor of integrative biology in 1991, and to full professor in 1995, a position he holds today. In 1996 Full was given a distinguished teaching award. In 1997 he became a chancellor's professor and the director of a new biological visualization center. In 1998 he received a Goldman Professorship for teaching. Full directs the Poly-P.E.D.A.L. Laboratory which studies the Performance, Energetics and Dynamics of Animal Locomotion (P.E.D.A.L.). His research laboratory applies the same techniques used in the study of human gait -- 3D kinematic, force platform, and EMG analysis -- but in miniature. His internationally recognized research program in comparative physiology and biomechanics has shown how examining a diversity of animals leads to the discovery of general principles of locomotion.
Eric Mazur
Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the physics department at Harvard University. After obtaining a Ph.D. in experimental physics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1981, Mazur came to Harvard University in 1982. In 1984 he joined the faculty and obtained tenure six years later. Mazur has made important contributions to spectroscopy, light scattering, the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with materials, and nanophotonics. In 1988 he was awarded a Presidential Young Investigator Award. He is fellow of the Optical Society of America and fellow of the American Physical Society, and was named APS Centennial Lecturer during the Society's centennial year. In 2007 Mazur was appointed a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. In 2008 Mazur received the Esther Hoffman Beller Award from the Optical Society of America and the Millikan Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers. Mazur has held appointments as visiting professor or distinguished lecturer at Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Leuven in Belgium, National Taiwan University in Taiwan, Carnegie Mellon University, and Hong Kong University. In addition to his work in optical physics, Mazur is interested in education, science policy, outreach, and the public perception of science. He believes that better science education for all -- not just science majors -- is vital for continued scientific progress. To this end, Mazur devotes part of his research group's effort to education research and finding verifiable ways to improve science education.
Randy Murch
Randy Murch is the associate director for research program development, as well as associate director for the Center for Technology, Security and Policy, National Capital Region, at Virginia Tech University. He also holds adjunct professorships in the School of Public and International Affairs and the department of plant pathology, and he is a visiting professor in the department of war studies, King's College London, UK. He was recently on loan to U.S. Homeland Security's Directorate of Science and Technology as senior principal counselor. Murch began his career with the FBI, where he was a special agent in counterterrorism and counterintelligence. During his FBI career, he served as a forensic biologist, research scientist, department head, and deputy director. He also handled various assignments, including: in the Bureau's technical investigative program, as a manager for complex operations planning; in the Intelligence Division, as unit chief for a technology development and deployment group, and; in the Technical Services Division, as a squad supervisor. He was detailed to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense, where he was director of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office. There he led studies on complex current and future challenges dealing with weapons of mass destruction. Murch created the FBI's Hazardous Materials Response Unit, the nation's focal point for the forensic investigation of WMD threats, events, and hoaxes; this laid the foundation for the creation of new fields in nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons forensics. He retired from the FBI in 2002 and was employed as a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a leading federally funded research and development center. He joined Virginia Tech in 2004, where his research interests focus on biosecurity, science and security, security in complex systems, graduate teaching and advising, outreach and public service.
David Oxtoby
David W. Oxtoby became the ninth president of Pomona College on July 1, 2003. An internationally noted chemist associated with the University of Chicago for nearly three decades, he served as dean of physical sciences at that institution. At Pomona, he is also a professor of chemistry, and as a research chemist he is author or co-author of more than 165 scientific articles on such subjects as light scattering, chemical reaction dynamics and phase transitions. He has been invited to lecturer at conferences and institutions around the globe. Oxtoby is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Gregory Petsko
Gregory Petsko is the Gyula and Katica Tauber Markey Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Brandeis University. He was educated at Princeton University and at Oxford University, where he received his D. Phil. in molecular biophysics. Petsko attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After a postdoctoral appointment at Institute de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris, he accepted a position as an instructor at Wayne State University School of Medicine where he was promoted to assistant professor in 1975. In 1979 he moved to M.I.T. as associate professor in the department of chemistry and became a full professor there in 1985. In 1990 he moved to Brandeis University as the Lucille P. Markey Professor in the departments of chemistry and biochemistry. He was appointed to the Tauber Chair in 1997, succeeding its first holder, William Jencks. Petsko is a member of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center at Brandeis, and became the center's director in 1994. He is a founding scientist of ArQule, Inc., of Medford, Mass., one of the world's leading companies in combinatorial chemistry. His research interests are the determination of protein three-dimensional structure and the relationship of that structure to biological function. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1995) and is currently president of the American Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
Geri Richmond
Geraldine Richmond holds the Richard M. and Patricia H. Noyes Professorship in Chemistry at the University of Oregon. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980. Her research is distinguished by the use of nonlinear optical spectroscopy and computational methods to understand the chemistry that occurs at complex surfaces and interfaces that have relevance to problems in energy production, environmental remediation, atmospheric chemistry and biomolecular surfaces. She is a leader in the development and application of the surface nonlinear optical methods used to make these discoveries. Richmond has received numerous awards for her studies, including the American Chemical Society Garvan Medal (1996), the Spiers Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2004), and the Bomem-Michaelson Award (2008). She has been selected as a fellow of the American Physical Society (1993), the American Association of the Advancement of Science (2004), the Association of Women in Science (2008), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006). Richmond is also known widely for her teaching and mentoring activities and has received numerous awards for these efforts. In 1998 Richmond founded an organization called "COACh" to foster the career success of women scientists in academia. More than 3,000 female academic scientists from around the country have since participated in its highly effective programs. Richmond has also played an important role in assisting in the health and vitality of the U.S. scientific and educational enterprise through her service on many science boards and advisory panels.
Joaquin Ruiz
Joaquin Ruiz received his B.S. in geology and B.S. in chemistry at the University of Miami in 1977. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in geology from the University of Michigan in 1980 and 1983, respectively. From 1982 to 1983 he was an assistant professor at the University of Miami. In 1983 he joined the University of Arizona geosciences department as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1989 and professor in 1993. He served as head of the geosciences department from 1995 to 2000, when he was appointed dean of the College of Science, a position he currently holds. Ruiz is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society, the Geochemical Society, and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science. He is also a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Governing Board of the Instituto Nacional de Astronomia, Optica y Electronica in Mexico. He has served as secretary of the Volcanology Section of the American Geophysical Union, councilor of the Geological Society of America, and as a National Science Foundation panel member for the Instrumentation and Facilities Program and the Centers for Excellence in Science and Technology Program. He has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Science, Geology, Revista, and Geofísica International of the Institute of Geology, UNAM. As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Ruiz addresses many first-order problems in the earth sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research team addresses problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change.
Carl Wieman
Carl Wieman was a distinguished professor of physics and presidential teaching scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1984 to 2006. He retains a part-time appointment at that institution as director of the Colorado Science Education Initiative. In January 2007, he joined the University of British Columbia as director of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. His research in atomic physics and laser spectroscopy has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his work in the creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate in the laboratory. Wieman has also worked on a variety of innovations in teaching physics to a broad range of students, including the Physics Education Technology Project, which creates educational online interactive simulations and studies their effectiveness. He is the chair of the National Research Council's Board on Science Education.