Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD, former President and CEO of COSI in Columbus, Ohio, has been named by President Biden as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
In addition to serving at the helm of COSI, Sullivan is a former NASA astronaut who flew on three Space Shuttle missions. She also served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during the Obama-Biden administration. She was the first American woman to walk in space, the first woman to dive to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the Earth’s oceans), and is the first and only person to do both.
PCAST is a body of external advisors charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House. The committee is co-chaired by Eric Lander, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Frances Arnold, a biochemical engineer at Caltech, and Maria Zuber, a geophysicist and planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Among the 30 appointees are 20 elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (including Dr. Sullivan), five MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, two former Cabinet secretaries, and two Nobel laureates.
Additional Information:
- President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
- “President Biden Announces Members of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,” September 22, 2021.
- White House video: The President Announces Members of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
- White House video: Who, What, and Why – The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)