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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of Science and Technology Policy

For Immediate Release February 13, 1998

            Gibbons to Resign as Assistant to the President 
                      for Science and Technology

Dr. John H. (Jack) Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, announced today that he will resign next month from his White House post, and as Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

In a letter to President Clinton, Dr. Gibbons said "It has been an extraordinary honor and privilege to be your science advisor for over five years. I am grateful for the remarkable opportunity to cap my four decades of public service by serving you and our country. While I remain committed to your success, I believe that now is an appropriate time to submit my resignation, to be effective March 15, 1998. I look forward to continuing my efforts to build bridges between people, disciplines, and institutions."

Dr. Gibbons added, "I take my leave with a sense of deep humility and immense pride -- humility in being associated with great American scientists who have gone before me, pride in this nation's unmatched scientific establishment. The tools of science and technology have provided greater strength, greater resources, and a greater quality of life for all Americans. In private life, I will work as hard as I have in the White House to keep us on the path to scientific preeminence, as well as to ensure that science and technology nurture the values and ideals that gave us birth as a Nation."

The President also announced his intention to nominate Dr. Neal Lane, currently Director of the National Science Foundation, to serve as his science and technology advisor and Director of OSTP.

Dr. Gibbons delayed his departure plans for over a year to work with the President and the Vice President to identify his successor.

Today the President accepted his resignation with regret in a speech to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He expressed his gratitude for Dr. Gibbons' years of valuable service to the nation and for his leadership in ensuring that America remains at the forefront of scientific capability.

Dr. Gibbons' five years of experience in developing scientific consensus and building bipartisan coalitions helped to produce pathbreaking developments in the Clinton Administration, including:

the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, which is on track to produce a low-emissions, 80 mile per gallon car by 2004;
science-based Stockpile Stewardship, which ensures the safety and reliability of our nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing;
the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, which has enabled a reasoned approach to divisive research issues such as the cloning of a human being; and
expanding our international scientific partnerships, allowing us to draw on a greater range of resources, while cost sharing major international research endeavors, such as the Large Hadron Collider.

Dr. Gibbons, one of the longest serving Presidential science advisors, came to the White House in 1993. Prior to joining the Administration, Gibbons served for 13 years as Director of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Following his formal training in physics at Duke University, he spent 15 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at the University of Tennessee. Beginning in 1970, he pioneered studies on how to use technology to produce and consume energy more efficiently, while minimizing the environmental impacts.