Energy Security and the Quiet Crisis | Technology and Society Forum

Shirley Ann Jackson
President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

February 8, 2006, 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Campus Center Ballroom

Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will share her insights into one of the most critical issues facing our society at the dawn of the 21st century -- ensuring ample and adequately secure supplies of energy. Jackson, whose distinguished contributions span science, public policy, and education, is speaking at the invitation of NJIT's Albert Dorman Honors College, Educational Opportunity Program, Murray Center for Women in Technology, and the Technology and Society Forum Committee.

Jackson, who holds a PhD in theoretical elementary particle physics from MIT, is immediate past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and currently chair of teh AAAS Board of Directors, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, and has advisory roles and involvement in other prestigious national organizations. She serves as a trustee of the Brookings Institution, a life member of the MIT Corporation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council on Competitiveness and serves on the boards of Georgetown University and Rockefeller University. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and is a director of several major corporations.

Jackson was appointed chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 1995-1999, by President Clinton. At the NRC, she reorganized the agency and revamped its regulatory approach by moving strongly to risk-informed, performance-based regulation. Prior to that, she was a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.