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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 20, 1997

White House Taps Panel of Experts on Energy Research and Development

Dr. John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, today announced formation of a panel of distinguished, independent experts to review the Nation's energy research and development (R&D) program. The panel, created under the auspices of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), will provide recommendations on how to ensure the United States' energy R&D program addresses the economic, environmental and national security needs of the nation for the next century. The panel will be chaired by John P. Holdren, the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Holdren, a member of PCAST, previously chaired 1995 PCAST studies on the U.S. fusion energy program and protection of nuclear-weapon materials.

Working with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of Energy, the panel will review current and projected U.S. energy R&D programs and will make recommendations on federal support for energy research and development, incentives for private-sector investments in energy research and development and U.S. commitments to international cooperation in energy research and development.

Issues covered by the panel will include R&D on energy and end-use efficiency, renewables, advanced fossil-fuel technologies, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. The panel will report its findings to the President by October 1997.

A list of panel members is attached.

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March 20, 1997
PANEL MEMBERSHIP:
PCAST Study of the Nation's Energy R&D Portfolio

Chair:
John P. Holdren
Harvard University
PCAST Member

Members:

Diana MacArthur
CEO
Dynamac Corporation
PCAST Member

Charles Vest
President
MIT
PCAST Member

Virginia Weldon
Vice President
Monsanto
PCAST Member

Lillian Shiao-Yen Wu
Research Scientist
IBM
PCAST

John Young
former CEO, Hewlett-Packard
PCAST Co-Chair

John Ahearne
Sigma Xi
Duke University

Richard Balzhiser
President Emeritus
Electric Power Research Institute

Robert Frosch
Harvard University
Former head, NASA & GM Labs

Joan Bok
Chairman of the Board
New England Electric System

William Fulkerson
Chairman of the Board Emeritus
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Robert Conn
Dean of Engineering
University of California, San Diego

Hal Harvey
President
The Energy Foundation

William L. Fisher
Benow Chair & Professor
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Texas, Austin

Thomas L. Fisher
Chairman, President and CEO
Northern Illinois Gas Company

Larry Papay
Senior VP & Manager of R&D
Bechtel Corporation

Dan Lashof
Senior Scientist
Natural Resoirces Defense Council

Laura D'Andrea Tyson
Professor of Economics
California, Berkeley

Don Paul
Vice President for Technology and Environmental Affairs Chevron Corporation

Robert Williams
Center for Energy & Environmental Studies Princeton University

Maxine Savitz
General Manager
Allied Signal Ceramic Components

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