John H. Gibbons
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John Howard (Jack) Gibbons was born in Harrisonburg, VA, in 1929. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry from Randolph-Macon College in 1949 and a doctorate in physics from Duke University in 1954. Between 1993 and 1998 he served as the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is an internationally recognized scientist and an expert in energy and environmental issues who has a deep interest and concern about the support of science and the impacts of technology on society. After leaving the White House, Dr. Gibbons served as the Karl T. Compton Lecturer at MIT (1998-1999) and Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering (1999-2000) where he assisted NAE’s president on a variety of topics including the new NAE program in Earth Systems Engineering. During 1999-2001 he was Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of State where he assisted the Secretary in revitalizing science and technology capabilities, including creating the position of Science Advisor to the Secretary. From 2000-2001 he was the elected President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.
[edit] As an American Politruk
Following his formal training in physics, he spent the next 15 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At Oak Ridge, Gibbons studied the structure of atomic nuclei, with emphasis on the role of neutron capture in the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in stars. In the late 60's, at the urging of Alvin M. Weinberg, he pioneered studies on how to use technology to conserve energy and minimize the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption. In 1973, Gibbons was appointed the first director of the Federal Office of Energy Conservation. Two years later he returned to Tennessee to direct the University of Tennessee Energy, Environment and Resources Center. In 1979, he returned to Washington to direct the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment which provides Congress with nonpartisan, comprehensive analyses on a broad spectrum of issues involving technology and public policy where his tenure lasted over 2 six-year terms prior to his Presidential appointment on February 2, 1993. In 2004 he became one of the founding members and serves on the Board of Directors of Scientists_and_Engineers_for_America, a 527 political lobbying group, representing a reorganization of Scientists and Engineers for Change, an organization founded in 2004 to support the election of John Kerry. It is now aimed at forcing US science toward political goals and has been criticized in both The Wall Street Journal[1] and The Weekly Standard[2] because of its inclination to suppress inconvenient research and dissenting researchers. Other politico-scientific memberships include membership in the Council on Foreign Relations and in the Federation of American Scientists where he received a Public Service Award. He currently serves on the board of advisors of Scientists and Engineers for America, an organization focused on promoting sound science in American government as perceived by its membership.
[edit] As a Physicist
Dr. Gibbons is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was recently elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize for sustained exceptional contributions to advancing science; the Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest from the American Physical Society; and medals from the German and French governments for fostering scientific cooperation. His publications are numerous in the areas of energy and environmental policy, energy supply and demand, conservation, technology and policy, resource management and environmental problems, nuclear physics, and origins of solar system elements.
At the ISI Web of Knowledge [3] (citation) site 9 publications in the Physical Sciences were retrieved, none peer-reviewed, and none cited or referenced, except for one article[4].
