The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology.
The current PCAST was established by on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, , by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, , by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, and by Donald Trump again on January 23, 2025, with .
History The council follows a tradition of presidential advisory panels focused on science and technology that dates back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Science Advisory Board, continued by President Harry Truman. Renamed the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) by Dwight Eisenhower, it was disbanded by President Richard Nixon.
Reagan science advisor Jay Keyworth re-established a smaller "White House Science Council" It reported, however, to him, not directly to the president.Robert C. Cowan, "Reagan Adviser Keyworth on Administration's Science Policy", Christian Science Monitor, January 22, 1985. Renamed PCAST, and reporting directly to the president, a new council was chartered by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, enabling the president to receive advice directly from the private and academic sectors on technology, scientific research priorities, and mathematics and science education.Elizabeth Pennisi, "Low-Key Start For Bush's Science Panel", The Scientist, March 5, 1990.
Mission The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology mission is to provide advice to the president and the Executive Office of the President. PCAST makes policy recommendations in areas such as understanding of science, technology, and innovation. PCAST is administered by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Recent PCAST reports have addressed antibiotic resistance, education technology (with a focus on MOOCs), cybersecurity, climate change, networking and information technology, and agricultural preparedness, among many others.
Members and structure PCAST has been enlarged since its inception and currently consists of 24 members and three co-chairs. The council members, distinguished individuals appointed by the president, are drawn from industry, education, research institutions, and other NGOs. The council is administered by an executive director.
PCAST membership under President Trump's second term On January 23, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order reestablishing the PCAST co-chaired by David Sacks and Michael Kratsios. Additional members, announced on March 23, 2026, include: Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. Safra Catz, executive vice chair of Oracle Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Jacob DeWitte, founder of Oklo Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase and Paradigm Larry Ellison, co-founder, executive chair, and CTO of Oracle David Friedberg, angel investor Jensen Huang, founder, president, and CEO of Nvidia John M. Martinis, quantum physicist and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara Bob Mumgaard, co-founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, CEO, and chair of Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms
PCAST membership under President Biden On February 1, 2021, less than a month into his presidency, President Biden issued an executive order reestablishing the PCAST. He had already announced the 3 co-chairs Frances Arnold, Maria Zuber, and Eric Lander before his swearing-in in January 2021. He announced an initial roster of 27 additional members on September 22, 2021.
, there were 3 co-chairs: Frances Arnold, Maria Zuber, and Arati Prabhakar. There are 25 additional members: Dan Arvizu, Chancellor of the New Mexico State University Dennis Assanis, Chancellor of University of California, Santa Barbara John Banovetz, Executive Vice President at 3M Frances Colón, Senior Director, International Climate at the Center for American Progress Lisa Cooper, internal medicine and public health physician, and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Equity in Health and Healthcare at Johns Hopkins University John Dabiri, Centennial Chair Professor at the California Institute of Technology Bill Dally, Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President for Research at Nvidia Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Inez Fung, Professor of atmospheric science at the University of California, Berkeley Andrea Goldsmith, Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University Laura Greene, physics professor at Florida State University and Chief Scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Paula T. Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in Engineering and the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft Joe Kiani, Chairman and CEO at Masimo Jonathan Levin, Dean at Stanford Graduate School of Business Stephen W. Pacala, Frederick D. Petrie Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University Saul Perlmutter, U.S. astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley William H. Press, Leslie Surginer Professor of Computer Science and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin Jennifer Richeson, Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology and Director of the Social Perception and Communication Lab at Yale University Vicki Sato, retired Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Kathryn D. Sullivan, former NASA Astronaut Terence Tao, Professor & The James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences at University of California, Los Angeles Phil Venables, Chief Information Security Officer at Google Cloud Catherine Woteki, Visiting Distinguished Institute Professor in the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia and Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University
Former members include: Eric Lander, co-chair, serving concurrently as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, who resigned from the Biden administration in February 2022 after a workplace bullying scandal Francis Collins, acting co-chair, former director of the National Institutes of Health, who served from February to October 2022 between the resignation of Lander and the swearing in of Prabhakar Marvin Adams, member, nuclear engineer and computational physicist, who resigned from the council in April 2022 after being confirmed as a deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration Ash Carter, member, Director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and 25th United States Secretary of Defense, who served until his death in October 2022 Penny Pritzker, member, Chairman of PSP Partners, who served through December 2022
PCAST membership under President Trump's first term On October 22, 2019, after a record 33 months since President Obama's PCAST held its final meeting, the Trump administration issued an executive order reestablishing the PCAST, appointing its first seven members: Catherine Bessant, the chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America Shannon Blunt, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Kansas Dario Gil, an electrical engineer and computer scientist, as well as the director IBM Research Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, a professor of engineering at Ohio State University, as well as associate dean for research Sharon Hrynkow, chief scientific officer at Cylo Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company that focuses on research around rare diseases Herbert Fisk Johnson III, the CEO of S. C. Johnson & Son Abraham (Avi) Loeb, a professor of physics at Harvard University, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation and the Black Hole Initiative, and chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies Theresa Mayer, executive vice president for research and partnerships and professor at Purdue University Daniela Rus, a professor of electrical engineering at MIT, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory A. N. Sreeram, a senior vice president at the Dow Chemical Company with a doctorate in materials science and engineering from MIT Hussein Tawbi, associate professor at the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Shane Wall, the chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard and director of HP Labs K. Birgitta Whaley, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The council was chaired by Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier.
PCAST membership under President Obama The PCAST under President Obama was co-chaired by John P. Holdren and Eric Lander. The outgoing membership included: John P. Holdren was one of two co-chairs of PCAST in addition to his duties as the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and assistant to the president for science and technology. Previously he was a professor of environmental policy and director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He also served concurrently as professor of environmental science and policy in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and as director of the independent, nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. Eric Lander served as one of two co-chairs of PCAST as well as the director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is a professor of biology at MIT and professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School, and is a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project, recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine. William H. Press was one of the two vice-chairs, and is professor of computer sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, has wide-ranging expertise in computer science, astrophysics, and international security. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, he previously served as Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1998 to 2004. He is a professor of astronomy and physics at Harvard University and a former member of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1982–1998). Maxine Savitz was one of the two vice chairs, and is a retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell and has more than 30 years of experience managing research, development and implementation programs for the public and private sectors, including in the aerospace, transportation, and industrial sectors. From 1979 to 1983 she served as deputy assistant secretary for conservation in the U.S. Department of Energy. She currently serves as vice-president of the National Academy of Engineering.