1998 Assembly of Delegates
Nominees for President-elect

John H. Gibbons
Science Advisor to the President (retired)

John H. Gibbons retired on April 3, 1998 as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Director, Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President (also referred to as "Science Advisor to the President"). As the "Science Advisor to the President" he was the most senior advisor to the President on matters of science and technology policy - one of six Cabinet-level, policy-level assistants to the President. He chaired the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology; was a member of the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, the National Security Council, and was a member of and oversees the National Science and Technology Council (which also contains the functions of the National Space Council). In general, as the President’s Science Advisor he was responsible for coordinating science and technology policy and budgets across federal government.

As the President’s Science Advisor he also was responsible for representing the U.S. Government in major multilateral and bilateral commissions. Multilateral meetings of Ministers for Science and Technology occur in the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OCED), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), Summit of the Americas, and among the G-7 nations. High bilateral meetings require the science advisor’s participation in the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation, the U.S.-South Africa Binational Commission, the U.S.-Japan Joint High Level Committee, and the U.S.-China Joint Commission.

Dr. Gibbons is an internationally recognized scientist who has a deep interest and concern about the support of science and the impacts of technology on society. Following his formal training in physics, he spent 15 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he studied the structure of atomic nuclei, with emphasis on the role of neutron capture in nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in stars. Beginning in 1970, he pioneered studies on how to use technology to conserve energy and minimize the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption. In 1973, at the start of the nation’s first energy crisis, Gibbons was appointed the first director of the Federal Office of Energy Conservation. Two years later he returned to Tennessee to direct the University of Tennessee Energy, Environment and Resources Center. In 1979, he returned to Washington to direct the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment which provided Congress with nonpartisan, comprehensive analyses on a broad spectrum of issues involving science, technology, and public policy. His tenure lasted over 2 six-year terms prior to his Presidential appointment on February 2, 1993.

Dr. Gibbons is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Other honors include the Federation of American Scientists Public Service Award, the Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest from the American Physical Society; the Sigma Xi McGovern Medal, the 1st Seymour Cray HPPC Industry recognition Award, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the National Science Foundation Distinguished Public Service Award, the Chairman’s Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies, and medals from the German and French governments for fostering technology assessment and scientific cooperation. In 1995, Dr. Gibbons’ home state of Virginia presented him its Life Achievement in Science Award. Dr. Gibbons has received six honorary degrees.

Dr. Gibbons was born in Harrisonburg, VA in 1929. He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and chemistry from Randolph-Macon College in 1949 and a doctorate in physics from Duke University in 1954. His publications are numerous in the areas of energy and environmental policy, energy supply and demand, conservation, technology and policy, resource management and environmental problems, nuclear physics, and origins of solar system elements. His most recent book (1997) is This Gifted Age: Science and Technology at the Millennium (NY: Springer-Verlag Press).

Candidate’s Statement

A nearly unique asset that Sigma Xi brings to the science and engineering community is its potential for promoting honor in science, science education, and the role of science in society through its local chapter structure. In my years in Washington one of the biggest hurdles faced by supporters of scientific research, by proponents of science and engineering education, and by policy makers sensitive to the issues facing the science and technology enterprise was the poorly developed public understanding of science. Sigma Xi has both the opportunity and the responsibility to effect major change in the public’s understanding of science. The millennium provides a perfect opportunity to focus on that challenge, and I have confidence in that role for the Society.

Many years ago, in the 1960’s and 70’s, when I was active in the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge Chapters, one of the key contributions our chapters offered to the local scientific community, in addition to honoring promise and achievement in science and engineering, was to facilitate access to a broad interdisciplinary frame of reference where members from academia, industry, and government could work together toward the common goals of the Society. When I was honored to serve as a one of the Society’s distinguished lecturers, I appreciated the opportunity to visit many chapters around the country and compare notes on how the Society can really make a difference at both the local and national level. Finally, in recent years, both in the course of participating in the 1993 Sigma Xi Forum and last year, when I was preparing to deliver the McGovern Lecture on global environmental challenges, I had the opportunity to revisit Sigma Xi’s role in the community of scientists and engineers. The whole can be more than the sum of its parts and for Sigma Xi, in particular, the future strength rests in coordinating all of our parts.

I believe that Sigma Xi must look first to its traditional strengths, in honoring of scientific achievement, in promoting research integrity and education in science and engineering, fostering a public understanding of science, and in plotting a dedicated course for supporting the "grass roots" needs of the membership and the local chapters in fulfilling the Society’s mission. The Society’s future can be very bright as we enter the new millennium, but we must mobilize the strengths of the chapters in this effort. It is a noble challenge and I would be honored and pleased to work with my colleagues in meeting that challenge.

Phillip A. Griffiths Institute for Advanced Study

Phillip A. Griffiths has been director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, since 1991. The IAS is an independent, private institution dedicated entirely to the encouragement, support and patronage of learning through fundamental research and definitive scholarship across a wide range of fields. Over the past 65 years the IAS has been home to some of the most highly regarded thinkers of the 20th century, drawing promising young postdocs and accomplished senior scholars from around the world to its New Jersey campus. Griffiths is a former provost and James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University and Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He has also served on the faculties of Princeton University, where he received his doctorate, and the University of California at Berkeley. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Griffiths is a former member of the National Science Board and chairs the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy (COSEPUP) of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. Involved in early planning for the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., he served on the steering committee for the 1995 Sigma Xi Forum "Vannevar Bush II: Science for the 21st Century" and delivered a plenary lecture at the 1995 Forum on "The Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers: Myths, Facts, and Recommendations." He served on Sigma Xi’s former Committee on Science & Society (1991-96) and has served on the Sigma Xi Committee on Programs since 1996. Dr. Griffiths is a member of the Princeton Chapter of Sigma Xi. In addition, Griffiths has chaired the Program Committee for the International Congress of Mathematicians, the Defense Conversion and Community Assistance Program for the State of New Jersey and the National Research Council’s Board on Mathematical Sciences. Widely published, he serves as editor of the Annals of Mathematics, Selecta Mathematica and Duke Mathematical Journal and is a past editor of Compositio Mathematica and the Journal of Differential Geometry. His honors and awards include honorary degrees from the University of Peking, Angers University in France, and Wake Forest University; a Guggenheim Fellowship; and the LeRoy P. Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society.

Candidates Statement

Sigma Xi has many strengths as a professional organization of scientists. One is the capacity to contribute expertise to discussions of science policy, education, and other public issues. This is an extremely important area, one where I believe we can be even more effective, and I’d like to suggest two especially relevant issues. The first is careers in science, and the second is the relationship between the scientific community and society at large.

In considering careers in science, it is useful to consider how people choose their field, and what career opportunities they imagine for themselves. The springboard to most scientific careers is graduate education, which in the United States is generally regarded as excellent, especially in preparing students for careers in academic research. At the same time, we hear from many people that graduate schools could better prepare students for careers outside academia. Many graduates find they need greater familiarity with fields related to their own, more skills in teamwork and communication, and experience with nonacademic environments, such as federal labs or private firms. Greater flexibility during training would allow students more options in choosing a career, and could do much to make science and engineering more attractive to the best students.

In our relationship with society at large, we are seen as experts at our own research. At the same time, we are thought to pay less attention to how our work is valued and used in people’s daily lives. We can join the public discussion by explaining what the nation needs to capitalize on research: a strong, diverse portfolio of research investments; superbly educated scientists and engineers; the ability of scientists and engineers to move freely between industry, university, and government; and a business and economic environment that promotes competition, provides incentives for entrepreneurs and investors, and encourages a global outlook.

The public also understands our dual roles as researchers and educators, but here again we are sometimes seen to emphasize our research activities over our teaching, especially at the undergraduate level. Overall, we do an excellent job at the advanced end of the spectrum, attracting students from all over the world to our graduate and postdoctoral programs. But we have more to give to undergraduates, community colleges, teachers colleges, and K-12 grades. In my opinion, one of our greatest opportunities is in helping to prepare the teachers of science. For example, Sigma Xi members could do much more to enhance the science and mathematics expertise of secondary school teachers.

We can start by reaching out - by talking to teachers, administrators, and parents - the people on the front line. We can also try to communicate the excitement and practical power of our fields to those who teach, and those who teach the teachers. Excitement about science is what drew most of us to our work; it is where careers in science really begin. Even a modest effort on our parts can pay enormous dividends in maintaining the strength of the nation’s science and engineering.

Nominated by McGill University, Ottawa, University of Massachusetts at Lowell and University of Toronto Chapters for President-elect

Peter Roper McGill University

Dr. Peter Roper is a psychiatrist who has been on the teaching staff at McGill University since 1959. He is also a specialist in Aviation and Space Medicine and a consultant to the Canadian Airline Pilots Association and he volunteered for the Astronaut Programme in 1969.

His research work has involved practical solutions to effects of zero gravity and the paradoxical arousal responses in pilots. The harbingers of relapse in psychiatric illness, the problems of community care and the objective measurement of change in emotional states. He has found time to publish about 20 papers in the medical literature.

He has been a member of Sigma Xi since 1960, was President of McGill Chapter in 1966 and has continued to serve on its executive committee. He was chair of an ad hoc committee on Retention of Membership in 1966 and also Chair of the Committee on International Membership in 1974-75. He was a member of the Long Range Planning Committee from 1970 to 1978, the International Committee from 1976 to 1985 and again from 1993 to the present. He has also been a member of the Committee on Qualifications and Membership since 1995. He has also been involved in the proposed formation of a Canadian Region which is still under discussion.

He is also a member of AAAS and of numerous medical organisations both within and without the University. He was Chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Psychiatric Association for Quebec and Eastern Canada from 1980 to 1995.

Dr. Roper went to school at Harrow in England. He was a fighter pilot in the R.A.F. from 1940 to 1946. He was shot down and captured by the Waffen S.S. in Normandy, this experience, he states jokingly, prepared him for the academic market place! He later escaped and joined up with General Patton’s troops before returning to his squadron and finishing the war in Germany.

After the war he studied medicine in Scotland and graduated from Glasgow University in 1951. He then rejoined the R.A.F. and served as a specialist in Aviation Medicine, flying personnel medical officer and test pilot. Whilst serving in S.E. Asia he managed to fly combat missions in Korea and in Malaya.

He later trained as a neuropsychiatrist in London, England and left the R.A.F. to take up a teaching and research position in 1959 at McGill University where he has remained ever since.

Dr. Roper is a great team player. He has been President of the McGill Faculty Club, President of the John Howard Society and has always been involved in sports. He played Rugby for his school and rowed for his University. He has recently won gold medals at the World Medical Games for squash and rowing and is still playing competitive squash. As one of his teachers said early on "he has a fund of common sense."

He was born in London, England and became a Canadian citizen after moving in 1959 to Montreal where he now lives. He is married, has 6 children and, so far, has 7 grandchildren.

Candidate’s Statement

I have always thought that Sigma Xi is a wonderful organisation. Better than AAAS as, being Chapter based, we can really be "companions". Companions in Zealous Research means a lot to all of us I hope. It certainly does to me. Let me paraphrase a sentence spoken by a well-known person not so long ago; "It is not what the Society can do for us, but what we can do for the Society". I make no apology for using this sentiment for our Society of the Sigma Xi because it is singularly apt, especially at the present time when our loyalties are so often demanded elsewhere.

Our founders at Cornell surely had the concept of companionship strongly in mind and we must not let them down. Our chapters are where the companionship amongst members has to flourish across all disciplinary boundaries and where the strength of our Society lies. It is also where the power lies and is transmitted up to the Board of Directors.

I am optimistic about the future of the Society. Who couldn’t be if we are optimistic about the future of science itself? If we need to rethink and reorganise the structure of the Society to keep up with changing times, this will be done. We are still an Honour society, but more emphasis should now be placed on our individual duty as members to be "companions" to each other in zealous research. I believe that it is the responsibility of a Chapter to ensure that this spirit of companionship is encouraged amongst its members. Strong support for Chapters in this responsibility should flow down from Headquarters and the Regions.

If I were to be elected President of the Society this would certainly be high on my priority list.