Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist and faculty director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, has been appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

September 22, 2021

Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist and faculty director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), has been appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the White House announced today. 

The council is the body of external advisors charged with advising President Joe Biden and the White House on science, technology and innovation policy.

“It’s certainly an honor to serve on PCAST,” said Perlmutter, who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. “Science has so much to offer our society, with both solutions and guidance, so it is more important than ever that we make it possible for everyone to share an understanding of its approaches and capabilities. I hope my experience with curiosity-driven and practical research and education can help with both the advising and the understanding of this advice.”

Perlmutter is also a faculty senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physical Sciences Area, holds the Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Chair in the Department of Physics at UC Berkeley and leads the Supernova Cosmology Project and the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics.

White House: President Biden Announces Members of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Berkeley News: President Biden appoints Saul Perlmutter, Inez Fung to science advisory council

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory News: Two Berkeley Lab Scientists Appointed to President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

BIDS News: Saul Perlmutter appointed to President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology