Established in 2002, the National Academies’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability provides a forum for sharing views, information, and analyses related to harnessing science and technology for sustainability. Members of the Roundtable include senior decision-makers from government, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations who deal with issues of sustainable development, and who are in a position to mobilize new strategies for sustainability.

The goal of the Roundtable is to mobilize, encourage, and use scientific knowledge and technology to help achieve sustainability goals and to support the implementation of sustainability practices. Three overarching principles guide the Roundtable’s work in support of this goal. First, the Roundtable focuses on strategic needs and opportunities for science and technology to contribute to the transition toward sustainability. Second, the Roundtable focuses on issues for which progress requires cooperation among multiple sectors, including academia, government (at all levels), business, nongovernmental organizations, and international institutions. Third, the Roundtable focuses on activities where scientific knowledge and technology can help to advance practices that contribute directly to sustainability goals, in addition to identifying priorities for research and development (R&D) inspired by sustainability challenges.

In September 2009, the Roundtable adopted a two-pronged strategy to address sustainability. The first part of this strategy attempts to define inter-sectoral dynamics essential to long-term science and technology approaches to sustainability. The second builds on that, but goes one step further and looks to apply these approaches and concepts to sustainability challenges.

• Focus on Long-Term Science and Technology Strategy for Sustainability

  Acknowledging that sustainability is an interdisciplinary topic that crosses domains, sectors, and institutions, the Roundtable launched a series of discussions to outline the major connections between human and environmental systems. This focus builds on the comparative advantage of the Roundtable versus the field-specific boards around the National Research Council. The September 2009 Roundtable discussions examined linkages in the energy domain between energy and water, energy and food systems, and energy and public health. The May 2010 Roundtable discussed water linkages at the nexus of energy, public health and urban development, food and sustainable livelihood, and biodiversity.

• Applied Sustainability

  As a second area of programmatic emphasis, the Roundtable is sharpening its focus on sustainability challenges in applied situations where STS works with specific communities within our RT membership.

The Roundtable is the key component of the Science and Technology for Sustainability (STS) Program in the division of Policy and Global Affairs at the National Research Council. The STS program has become a gateway to the National Academies’ rich portfolio of sustainability related programs. The Roundtable is being supported by the National Academies’ George and Cynthia Mitchell Endowment for Sustainability. For more information, please visit our website at: www.nas.edu/sustainability or contact Marina Moses, Director of the National Academies’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability (mmoses@nas.edu; 202-334-2143).

Thomas Graedel (Co-Chair) (NAE), Clifton R. Musser Professor of Industrial Ecology, Yale University

Ann M. Bartuska (Co-Chair), Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Shere Abbott, Associate Director of Environment, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy*

Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency*

Mary P. Anderson (NAE), C.S. Slichter Professor, Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Matt Arnold, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Michael Bertolucci, Former President, Interface Research Corporation

Nancy Cantor (IOM), President and Chancellor, Syracuse University

John Carberry, Former Director of Environmental Technology, DuPont

Leslie Carothers, President, Environmental Law Institute

Stephen R. Carpenter (NAS), Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor of Zoology, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Glen T. Daigger (NAE), Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, CH2M HILL

Nina Fedoroff (NAS), Science and Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. State Department*

Marco Ferroni, Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

Bernard D. Goldstein (IOM), Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health

Mohamed H. A. Hassan, Executive Director, The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World

Neil C. Hawkins, Vice President of Sustainability, The Dow Chemical Company

Katie Hunt, Director, Technology Collaboration Development in Core R&D, The Dow Chemical Company

Michael Kavanaugh (NAE), Principal, Geosyntec Consultants

Jack Kaye, Associate Director, Research of the Earth Science Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration*

Steven E. Koonin (NAS), Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy*

Kai Lee, Program Officer, Conservation & Science Program, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation

Marcia K. McNutt (NAS), Director, U.S. Geological Survey*

J. Todd Mitchell, Chairman, Board of Directors, Houston Advanced Research Center

Prabhu Pingali (NAS), Head, Agricultural Policy and Statistics, Agriculture Development Division, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Per Pinstrup-Andersen, H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

Christopher Portier, Director, National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Larry Robinson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration*

Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer, Mars Inc.

Subra Suresh (NAE), Director, National Science Foundation* (Pending)

Robert Stephens, International Chair, Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Performance

Denise Stephenson Hawk, Chair, The Stephenson Group, LLC

Dennis Treacy, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer, Smithfield Foods

Vaughan Turekian, Chief International Officer, The American Association for the Advancement of Science*

B.L. Turner II (NAS), Gilbert F. White Professor of Environment and Society, School of Geographical Sciences, Arizona State University

Marina Moses, Director, Science and Technology for Sustainability Program

Pat Koshel, Senior Program Officer

Jennifer Saunders, Program Officer

Dominic Brose, Associate Program Officer

Emi Kameyama, Senior Program Assistant

Dylan Richmond, Research Assistant