Despite President Bill Clinton's headline-grabbing political hassles and the furor surrounding the White House's campaign to enact health-care reform, his comparatively low-profile National Science and Technology Council -- a Cabinet-level policy body he formed late last year -- is functioning undaunted.
So far this year, the 16-member panel, composed of the administration's highest officials and created to provide oversight and interagency coordination of United States research programs, has convened two major science policy forums in Washington, D.C., attended by hundreds of prominent scientists. One of the forums focused on determining strategies for maintaining America's leadership in basic science, mathematics, and engineering; the other centered on environmental and natural resources R&D.
The 16 members of the National Science and Technology Council
Besides Clinton, the council includes Vice President Al Gore, presidential science adviser John H. Gibbons, several Cabinet secretaries, administrators, chiefs of the major independent science agencies, and high-level advisers (see ...
