President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate two new members to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy (PCAST).  The new appointees are J. Michael McQuade, Senior Vice President of Science and Technology at United Technologies Corporation and Susan L. Graham.  President Obama said,

I am confident that these outstanding individuals will greatly serve the American people in their new roles and I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.

Graham is the current Chair of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC).  She has been a key leader with the CCC since its inception in 2006.  Graham is the Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. She received the A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University and the Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. Her research spans many aspects of programming language implementation, software tools, software development environments, and high-performance computing. Dr. Graham is a member the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Among her awards are the ACM SIGPLAN Career Programming Language Achievement Award (2000), the ACM Distinguished Service Award (2006), the Harvard Medal (2008), the IEEE von Neumann Medal (2009), the Berkeley Citation (2009), and the ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy award (2011). She serves on the Harvard Corporation, the Board of Trustees of Cal Performances, and the Board of Overseers of the Curtis School of Music.

PCAST is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who directly advise the President and the Executive Office of the President. PCAST makes policy recommendations in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people.  The CCC congratulates Graham and knows she will be a great addition to the Council.