New CEO Envisions A Broader Role For New York Academy

The newly appointed chief executive officer of the New York Academy of Sciences says he hopes to guide the academy to a leadership role in the national and international arenas as well as locally. "One of the academy's central functions must continue to be serving the science and engineering community itself," says Rodney W. Nichols, named to the CEO post late last month. "But the function of serving society, which has always been tacit, really has to rise to equal priority." Nichols, a former executive vice president of Rockefeller University who since October 1990 has been a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, assumes his post at the 31,000-member academy on April 1. He succeeds Oakes Ames, who resigned last August after less than 2 1/2 years on the job (The Scientist, Sept. 30, 1991, page 3). The 54-year-old Nichols notes that "New York City is blessed with many research universities and intellectuals in a variety of fields. But they haven't been organized in New York to think about the rest of the country, or even about New York itself." The new CEO says he hopes to strengthen the academy's role as "a forum for bringing together the people in New York who otherwise would go to Washington" to discuss national and global issues at the National Academy of Sciences or other national forums. Nichols's experience at focusing on science and technology policy issues was what led to his selection by a search committee from a field of 104 candidates, academy officials say. "He's been an active scientist in times past, and is one of the leading thinkers on the policy level as well as on education," says Charles A. Sanders, chairman of the academy's board of governors and chairman and CEO of Glaxo Inc., whose North American operations are headquartered at Research Triangle Park, N.C. Nichols, who received an A.B. in applied physics from Harvard University in 1959, has been an adviser to the White House Science and Technology Office, the State and Defense departments, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation, among other organizations. At Rockefeller, he was vice president during the presidency of Frederick Seitz from 1972 to 1978 and executive vice president during the presidency of Joshua Lederberg from 1978 to 1990. Lederberg, now a professor at Rockefeller, is the board's nominee for the academy's president-elect. He is running unopposed in a election of the full membership to take place this spring; he is slated to take office on July 1 and assume the presidency in 1993. The president heads committees or takes on special proj-ects at the request of the board chairman, but as CEO, Nichols will run the operations. "He's the guy doing the work day-to-day," Lederberg says. Organizations like the New York Academy, Lederberg says, can have "major influence at the regional level." A strong regional association, he says, "gets things closer to the people--it's what the administration of science is all about." Nichols says an associate suggested to him that the academy build on the strengths of New York's biomedical research institutions, many of whose faculty are involved in biotechnology, to establish a clearinghouse providing information for biotech entrepreneurs on finding patent attorneys, venture capital funding, and the like. "This is the kind of idea I'd like to explore. If it worked, it would be a big boon for economic development in the region," Nichols says. Yet because New York is a cosmopolitan city, he notes, its scientists' interests transcend the regional. "They know how problems in New York match up with problems in the rest of the country," says Nichols. "They know a lot about Pasadena and Topeka and Boston." Moreover, he says, the academy "is sort of a natural [forum] for getting together for some special study, for example, to back up something the United States is doing at the United Nations." Academy members living outside the U.S., Nichols says, "I'm assuming would like to be involved with international activities." His vision for the academy "may sound grandiose," Nichols acknowledges. "I'm well aware that there's only so much one society can do. But we have to get on it." Because the academy, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, is redefining its role, Lederberg says, Nichols "has to mold the opportunity." The CEO's post at the academy, Lederberg adds, "is not a routine managerial function," involving more than "fund-raising and moving papers across the desk." This is not to say that the new job will be totally free from fund-raising duties, Nichols notes. The amount of his time devoted to such tasks "certainly would not be less than 25 percent," he says. "I will certainly have to work hard at fund raising, but not in an emergency situation." Nichols's title will differ from that of his predecessors. While previous chief executives--including Ames and Heinz Pagels, who was in his fifth year in the post when he died in a mountain climbing accident in 1988--were known as executive directors, Nichols will be called the CEO. "In the [employment] contract in the past, it said that the executive director is the CEO," says Cyril Harris, the current president of the academy, who is Charles Batcheler Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and professor emeritus of architecture at Columbia University. "We kind of like that term, and this is how he'll be called." Ames, a former president of Connecticut College, is now doing research on energy technology and policy under an Empire State fellowship, which the academy created specifically for him. He says he plans to meet with Nichols personally to give him his perspective on the academy. "I know him [Nichols] slightly," says Ames. "From all I know, it's a pretty good appointment." Ames declines to comment on the reasons behind his departure. Says board chairman Sanders: "As time went on, he found out that this was a different type of activity than he expected to be involved in. There wasn't any rancor involved; it didn't work out in terms of what his interests were. He was more interested in getting back to the academic world than in managing a diverse and not particularly well-focused organization." Carnegie Corporation president David Hamburg, an academy board member who served on the search committee, found himself in the unusual position of recruiting Nichols away from his own organization to lead the academy. "I'm sorry to lose him--I admit freely--but this is a broader view," says Hamburg. "I felt the long term was more important. With his kind of vision and imagination, he'll work out something that's really useful for the New York Academy."

New CEO Envisions A Broader Role For New York Academy

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of