James Curran, MD, PhD
Dr. Curran began his career with the CDC in 1971 in the Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Division, after holding research positions in public health departments in Tennessee and Ohio. He served as Coordinator for the CDC Task Force on Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections from 1981 to 1982, set up right after the first reports were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. As Dr. Curran noted, what was a three-month appointment on the task force became a fifteen-year commitment to fighting AIDS. He was involved in every aspect of tracking the epidemiology of the disease and of determining the most effective means to safeguard people from infection. Dr. Curran held positions of leadership in the CDC's HIV/AIDS Division until 1995. For his years of service, he received many United States Public Health Service Awards, and also in 1995 the Edward Brandt, Jr., Award from the National Leadership Coalition Against AIDS.
In 1995, Dr. Curran was appointed Professor of Epidemiology and Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research, an NIH-funded Center.
Paul Gilman, PhD
"What keeps you awake at night?" is a question Paul Gilman often asks federal decision makers. For the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of the Interior, the answer is "Water." If the issue requires scientific and technical expertise, as well as input from economists and policy analysts, Gilman may suggest this concern as a candidate topic for consideration by the new Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies at ORNL, of which he is the first director. Gilman says he would like ORCAS to be perceived as a "do tank," not a "think tank."
Before coming to Oak Ridge, Gilman was the science advisor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Earlier, he worked at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he had oversight responsibilities for the Department of Energy and all other science agencies, and at DOE, where he advised the Secretary of Energy on scientific and technical matters. He also served as an External Member of DOE's Laboratory Operations Board.
Starting in 1998, Gilman gained research management experience in the private sector for three years by helping Craig Venter create and manage Celera Genomics, which sequenced the human genome. From 1993 to 1998 he was the executive director of the Life Sciences and Agriculture divisions of the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.
From 1985 to 1991 he served as chief of staff for Senator Pete Domenici, and prior to that, he worked on the Senate Energy R&D Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over DOE research programs. He convinced many senators to support Charles DeLisi's concept of a human genome project and helped DOE receive appropriations for human genome research.
A native of Connecticut, Gilman attended Kenyon College and received his A.B. M. A., and Ph.D. degrees in ecology and evolutionary biology from Johns Hopkins University. His plan was to become a scientist, but in 1978 he was diverted to Capitol Hill after winning an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship.
Lynn Goldman, MD, PhD
Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and an epidemiologist, is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her areas of focus are environmental health policy, public health practice, and children's environmental health. Her appointment is in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
In 1993, Dr. Goldman was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve as Assistant Administrator (AA) for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS). She served in that position for more than five years. As AA for OPPTS she was responsible for the nation's pesticide, toxic substances and pollution prevention laws. Under her watch, EPA expanded right-to-know under the Toxics Release Inventory and overhauled the nation's pesticides laws. Dr. Goldman made significant progress on the issues of testing of high volume industrial chemicals and identification of chemicals that disrupt endocrine systems. At EPA she was successful in promoting children's health issues and furthering the international agenda for global chemical safety.
Prior to joining the EPA, Dr. Goldman served in several positions at the California Department of Health Services, most recently as head of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control. She has conducted public health investigations on pesticides, childhood lead poisoning and other environmental hazards. She has a B.S. in Conservation of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPH from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed pediatric training at Children's Hospital, Oakland, California.
Dr. Goldman has served on numerous boards and expert committees, including the Committee on Environmental Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control Lead Poisoning Prevention Advisory Committee, and numerous expert committees for the National Research Council. She currently is Vice Chair of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences and Chair of the IOM Gulf War and Health Study.
Neal Lane, PhD
Dr. Neal Lane is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University. He also holds appointments as a Senior Fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, where he is engaged in matters of science and technology policy, and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Prior to returning to Rice University, Dr. Lane served in the Federal government as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, from August 1998 to January 2001, and as Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and member (ex officio) of the National Science Board, from October 1993 to August 1998.
Before becoming the NSF Director, Dr. Lane was Provost and Professor of Physics at Rice University in Houston, Texas, a position he had held since 1986. He first came to Rice in 1966, when he joined the Department of Physics as an assistant professor. In 1972, he became Professor of Physics and Space Physics and Astronomy. He left Rice from mid-1984 to 1986 to serve as Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Widely regarded as a distinguished scientist and educator, Dr. Lane’s many writings and presentations include topics in theoretical atomic and molecular physics and science and technology policy. Early in his career he received the W. Alton Jones Graduate Fellowship and held an NSF Doctoral Fellowship (University of Oklahoma), an NSF Post-Doctoral Fellowship (while in residence at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland) and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (at Rice University and on research leave at Oxford University). He earned Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1960 and was inducted into Sigma Xi National Research Society in 1964, serving as its national president in 1993. He served as Visiting Fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in 1965-66 and 1975-76. While a Professor at Rice, he was two-time recipient of the University's George R. Brown Prize for Superior Teaching. Dr. Lane has received numerous prizes, awards, including the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Award, the AAAS William D. Carey Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers President’s Award, the American Chemical Society Public Service Award, the American Astronomical Society /American Mathematical Society/American Physical Society Public Service Award, and many honorary degrees.
Through his work with scientific and professional organizations and his participation on review and advisory committees for Federal and state agencies, Dr. Lane has contributed to public service throughout his career. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Association for Women in Science and a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers. He serves on several boards and advisory committees.
Al Teich, PhD
Since February 1990, Dr. Teich has 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, he is 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.
Dr. Teich has 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 he 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, Dr. Teich 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.
Dr. Teich speaks frequently on topics of science and technology policy and science, technology, and society, and he is 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, Dr. Teich 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.
Dr. Teich is 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. He chaired the advisory committee to the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Studies from 1987 through 1990 and is 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.
Dr. Teich's education includes a B.S. in Physics (1964) and a Ph.D. in Political Science (1969), both from MIT.
