Michael Turner (Chair)

Dr. Michael S. Turner is the Rauner Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at The University of Chicago where he has been a faculty member since 1980.  He is a theoretical cosmologist, who coined the term dark energy.  Dr. Turner helped establish the interdisciplinary field that combines together cosmology and elementary particle physics to understand the origin and evolution of the Universe. His research focuses on the earliest moments of creation, and he has made contributions to inflationary cosmology, particle dark matter and structure formation, the theory of big bang nucleosynthesis, and the nature of dark energy. 

Alan Hurd (Vice Chair)

Dr. Alan Hurd is a materials physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he currently coordinates the lab's strategic planning in materials and manufacturing.  He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and, for over a decade, the Director of the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at LANSCE. He has served as a Franklin Fellow for the U.S. Department of State as the Secretary's Science and Technology Adviser.  Dr. Hurd was the 2007 President of the Materials Research Society, who honored him with the 1999 Woody Award and the 2004 MRS Special Recognition Award.

David Helfand (Treasurer)

David J. Helfand, a faculty member at Columbia University for forty-one years, has served nearly half of that time as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He has mentored 22 PhD students, but most of his pedagogical efforts have been aimed at teaching science to non-science majors. He instituted the first change in Columbia's Core Curriculum in 50 years by introducing science to all first-year students. In 2005, he joined an effort to create Canada's first independent, secular university, Quest University Canada where served as President & Vice-Chancellor from 2008-2015. He also recently completed a four-year term as President of the American Astronomical Society and is currently Acting Chair of the American Institute of Physics. His book, "A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age" appeared last year.

Stefano Bertuzzi (Secretary)

Dr. Bertuzzi is the chief executive officer of the American Society for Microbiology. Previously, he served as the executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology. Dr. Bertuzzi has contributed to reforms of biomedical research systems in foreign countries.  Under the leadership of former NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Dr. Bertuzzi has been the NIH lead in the bilateral working group with the European Commission (Directorate of Research-Health Theme) to achieve a funding reciprocity policy between the EC and the NIH.

Ben Corb

Benjamin Corb is the director of public affairs for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Corb has made a career in science policy and advocacy, having spent two years as director of public affairs at the Washington based American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, serving as the chief public face of the organization before institute partners, the White House and Congress. Before that, he served as executive director and senior technical coordinator for the Next Generation Air Transportation System Institute, a policy manager for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a management analyst for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Mariette DiChristina

Mariette DiChristina is Executive Vice President of Editorial & Publishing for Nature Research’s Magazines division, leading the award-winning global editorial teams of the journal Nature’s magazine, Nature Research’s Partnership & Custom Media and Scientific American, for which she also serves as editor in chief. She was honored as a “Corporate Visionary” in Folio’s 2014 Top Women in Digital Media. In 2011, she was selected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is past president of the National Association of Science Writers in the U.S. as well as of Science Writers in New York, and was an adjunct professor and Visiting Scholar in the graduate Science, Health and Environmental Reporting program at New York University.

Rush Holt

Dr. Holt is chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Over his career, Dr. Holt has held positions as a teacher, scientist, administrator, and policymaker. Dr. Holt was assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a Department of Energy national lab. He has served on the faculty of Swarthmore College, where he taught courses in physics and public policy. Serving 16 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Holt represented New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. While on Capitol Hill, Dr. Holt established a long track record of advocacy for federal investment in research and development, science education, and innovation.

Dan Kahan

Dan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School. He is a member of the Cultural Cognition Project, an interdisciplinary team of scholars who use empirical methods to examine the impact of group values on perceptions of risk and science communication. In studies funded by the National Science Foundation, Professor Kahan and his collaborators have investigated public opinion of climate change, public reactions to emerging technologies, and public understandings of scientific consensus across disputed issues.  Articles featuring the Project’s studies have appeared in Journal of Risk Research, Judgment and Decision Making, Nature Climate Change, Science, and Nature. 

Margaret Leinen

Dr. Margaret Leinen is UC San Diego Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine Sciences. She is a researcher in paleo-oceanography and paleo-climatology who is a Fellow of AAAS and the Geological Society of America. She served for 7 years as the assistant director for Geosciences of the National Science Foundation. She has served as the President of the American Geophysical Union and the Chair of the Atmosphere and Hydrosphere Section of AAAS, and was appointed as US Department of State Science Envoy by both the Obama and Trump Administrations Dr. Leinen joined Scripps Oceanography in October 2013.  She has extensive national and international experience in ocean science, global climate and environmental issues, federal research administration, and non-profit startups. She is a researcher in paleo-oceanography and paleo-climatology.

Alan Leshner

Dr. Leshner is chief executive officer, emeritus, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Previously, he served at the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health, and at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Leshner was also Professor of Psychology at Bucknell University. He is an elected fellow of AAAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Public Administration, and many other professional societies. He is a member of the governing Council of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, was appointed by President Bush to the National Science Board and reappointed by President Obama.

Donna Nelson

Dr. Nelson is professor of chemistry at Oklahoma University and past president of the American Chemical Society.  Besides her numerous research contributions in the areas of nanoscience and organic chemistry, she has also been a pivotal figure in several efforts to enhance chemical education and scientific workforce development. Her scientific workforce surveys of faculty race/ethnicity, gender, and rank in science and engineering at research universities revealed that women and minorities are much less represented among professors than degree recipients. She also advises television programs, such as Breaking Bad, to further the universal goal of presenting accurate science to TV audiences.  

Chris Volpe

Executive Director

Dr. Christopher Volpe is the executive director and a founding board member of ScienceCounts. With an academic background in physical chemistry and two decades of private sector experience in marketing and branding, Dr. Volpe is a leading voice in developing data-driven social marketing strategies to foster stronger connections between the scientific community and the general public. Previously, he was the president and co-founder of Prismatic Laser Programs LLC, the nation’s leading provider of STEM-based assembly programs to elementary and middle schools. In his free time, Dr. Volpe is a demonstration pilot of various types of historically significant WW2 aircraft.

Michael Lubell

Senior Advisor

Dr. Michael S. Lubell is the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of Physics at the City College of the City University of New York (CCNY) and former Director of Public Affairs of The American Physical Society (APS). He is a pioneer of science advocacy in Washington and is regarded as one of its most effective practitioners. He has served on many scientific advisory committees inside and outside government. Dr. Lubell has also been a newspaper columnist for more than 25 years and a guest column for Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper that reaches more than 20,000 readers. He has been active in local, state and national politics for more than four decades and has served as an adviser to members of Congress and state and national officials.