WASHINGTON — Maria T. Zuber, John C. Gannon, and Richard A. Meserve will serve as co-chairs of a newly launched National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  

Called for in the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the roundtable will bring together individuals from the research agencies, national intelligence, law enforcement, academic research, and business communities to explore critical issues related to protecting U.S. national and economic security while ensuring the open exchange of ideas and the international talent required for American leadership in science and technology. 

The roundtable, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health, will identify and consider security risks involving federally funded research and development, identify effective approaches for communicating risks to the academic and scientific community, and share best practices for mitigating these risks.

“The National Academies are pleased to carry out Congress’s direction to create a roundtable that will bring together many sectors and perspectives to explore how to protect both the security and the vitality of U.S. research,” said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt.  “We are delighted that Maria, John, and Dick have agreed to chair the roundtable, and are confident that these discussions will help all stakeholders find common ground that ensures excellence in research without compromising proprietary information.” 

Maria T. Zuber is vice president for research and E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As vice president for research, she oversees the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers. She is also responsible for intellectual property and research integrity and compliance, as well as research relationships with the federal government.  A geophysicist, Zuber is a world leader in the study of planetary interior structure and deformation. She led the determination of the first high-resolution structural models for the moon, Mars, and the asteroid Eros, and she has developed a pioneering suite of quantitative models for the interpretation of planetary deformations.  Zuber holds a B.A. in astrophysics and geology from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a Sc.M. and a Ph.D. in geophysics from Brown University.  She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

John C. Gannon is currently an adjunct professor in the graduate Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.  He served in numerous positions at the Central Intelligence Agency, including as director of European analysis, deputy director for intelligence, assistant director of central intelligence for analysis and production, and chairman of the National Intelligence Council. After his retirement from CIA in 2001, Gannon served in the White House as the head of the intelligence team standing up the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and later on Capitol Hill as the staff director of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. He retired from U.K.-owned BAE Systems in 2012 as president of the $1.7 billion intelligence and security sector, which supported intelligence, defense, and homeland security missions. In 2014-2015, he was the executive director of the congressionally directed 9/11 Review Commission of the FBI. Gannon earned his B.A. in psychology at Holy Cross College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Washington University in St. Louis.  He is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and the board of directors of Voices of September 11th. He has served on numerous committees of the National Academies.

Richard A. Meserve is senior of counsel at the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP. He is also president emeritus of the Carnegie Institution for Science.  Before assuming the Carnegie presidency in April 2003, he was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, having served since October 1999. He currently serves as chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group, chartered by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Early in his career, he served as legal counsel to the president’s science adviser, and was a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court and to Judge Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Meserve received a B.A. from Tufts University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University. He a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the NAE Council and has previously served on numerous committees and boards of the National Academies.

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