David T Kingsbury, assistant director for biological, behavioral and social sciences at the National Science Foundation, has been described as the Reagan administration's point man on biotechnology. As chairman of the Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee formed under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kingsbury was the principal architect of the Coordinated Framework for Biotechnology, which President Reagan signed last June.
After receiving his Ph.D. in 1971, Kingsbury taught microbiology at the University of California at Irvine. In 1981 he became a professor of medical microbiology and virology at the University of California at Berkeley, from which he is now on leave. His research interests include pathogenesis of the slow viruses, infection by microbial pathogens and molecular diagnostic techniques in medical microbiology.
Kingsbury, who joined the NSF in 1984, is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He was interviewed in his NSF office in Washington last...
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