The Department
of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) Acting Director Hratch Semerjian has named four distinguished
industry and business experts to serve on the Visiting Committee
on Advanced Technology, the agency's primary private-sector
policy advisor. The new VCAT members—who will serve
three-year terms until Jan. 31, 2007—bring the body’s
number to 15.
The VCAT
was established by Congress in 1988 to review and make recommendations
on NIST’s policies, organization, budget, and programs.
Starting
their service on the VCAT are Donald B. Keck, Corning, N.Y.,
chief technology officer, Infotonics Technology Center, Inc.;
Edward J. Noha, Chicago, Ill., chairman emeritus, CNA Financial
Corporation; Thomas A. Saponas, Colorado Springs, Colo., retired
senior vice president and chief technology officer, Agilent
Technologies; and James W. Serum, West Chester, Penn., president,
SciTek Ventures.
Keck
served at Corning Incorporated for 34 years in a number of
technical and management positions; he retired from Corning
in 2002 as vice president of research. He was a key member
of the Corning team that invented low-loss optical fiber for
telecommunications in 1970 paving the way for innovations
such as the Internet and video teleconferencing. In 2000,
Keck received the National Medal of Technology for his technical
contributions, and was inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame in 1993.
Prior
to his service as chairman of the board for CNA Financial
Corporation, Noha was chief executive officer of the CNA Insurance
Companies. Under his leadership, CNA became one of the largest,
multi-line insurance organizations in the United States. Noha
was instrumental in establishing the Chicago Manufacturing
Center, an affiliate of NIST’s Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP), and served for several years as chair of
the MEP Advisory Board.
Saponas
recently retired as senior vice president and chief technology
officer of Agilent Technologies as well as director of Agilent
Laboratories. Saponas was responsible for developing the company’s
long-term technology strategy and overseeing the alignment
of the company’s objectives with its centralized research
and development activities. Prior to his stint at Agilent,
Saponas was vice president and general manager of the Electronic
Instruments Group at the Hewlett-Packard Company. He also
was a White House Fellow and served as special assistant to
the Secretary of the Navy.
In 2002,
Serum founded SciTek Ventures, a consulting company that assists
early stage technology companies in defining their business
strategy, raising capital, and creating value from their technology.
He also is a venture partner with Flagship Ventures. Serum
began his career at the Hewlett-Packard Company as an applications
chemist in mass spectrometry and held numerous positions in
research and development and general management until his
retirement in 1999. Before founding SciTek, Serum was a co-founder,
executive vice president and chief operating officer of Viaken
Systems, a research bioinformatics company. In 2002, Serum
was elected a national associate of the National Academy of
Sciences.
Other
VCAT members are: April M. Schweighart (VCAT chair), retired,
Motorola; Scott C. Donnelly, General Electric Company; Gary
D. Floss, Bluefire Partners, Inc.; Richard M. Gross, Dow Chemical
Company; Deborah L. Grubbe, DuPont Safety, Health, Environment;
Lou Ann Heimbrook, Merck Research Laboratories; Jennie Hunter-Cevera,
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute; Thomas A.
Manuel, retired, Council for Chemical Research; F. Raymond
Salemme, retired, 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Juan
M. Sanchez, University of Texas at Austin; and Robert T. Williams,
Caterpillar Inc.
For more
information on the VCAT, see www.nist.gov/director/vcat/index.htm
As a
non-regulatory agency, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade, and improve the quality of life.
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