U.S. Science Envoy Program
Science Envoys build connections between foreign audiences and the U.S. scientific community. Science Envoys help bridge the gap between government institutions and scientific communities, strengthening global U.S. science and technology relationships.
Scientists and Engineers
Through the Science Envoy Program, eminent U.S. scientists and engineers leverage their expertise and networks to forge connections and identify opportunities for sustained international cooperation. Science Envoys focus on issues of common interest in science, technology, and engineering fields and serve for one to two years. They are instrumental in strengthening our bilateral science and technology relationships, reaching out to foreign publics, and advancing policy objectives by:
- Building peer-to peer connections between in-country researchers and the U.S. scientific community
- Advocating for merit-based, transparent, peer-reviewed scientific institutions
- Promoting science education and public engagement, highlighting the role of science in society
- Advising U.S. government representatives on programs and opportunities which may support collaborative activities
U.S. Science Envoys are leaders in academia, Nobel prizewinners, distinguished authors, and government advisors. Their areas of expertise include agronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, physics, and beyond. Since 2010, 34 Envoys have visited over 70 countries around the world and have engaged with a multitude of government officials, including heads of state. Science Envoys meet government and non-government science officials, convene meetings on topics at the intersection of foreign policy and science, technology, and innovation. In some cases, Science Envoys also plan and execute regional workshops. Through the Science Envoy program, the Department of State is supporting the establishment, strengthening, and mobilization of regional and global networks of scientists around U.S. science and technology priorities and solving real-world problems.
The success of the program was highlighted in the 2015 report from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, "Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Embedding a Culture of Science and Technology throughout the Department of State."
List of Previously Appointed Science Envoys
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury
CEO of Humane Intelligence and a Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
Dr. Stephanie Diem
Assistant Professor in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Sian Proctor
Geoscience Professor at the Maricopa Community Colleges and an astronaut. with the first all-civilian orbital mission SpaceX Inspiration4
Dr. Dawn Wright
Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) and Courtesy Professor of Geography at Oregon State University
Dr. Linda Abriola
Dean of Engineering and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University
Dr. Bruce Alberts
Editor-in-chief of Science
Dr. Bernard Amadel
Founder of Engineers without Borders USA
Dr. Rita Colwell
Former Director of the National Science Foundation
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta
Recipent of the 2009 World Food Drive
Major General Charles Bolden, Jr.
Former Administrator of NASA
Dr. Alice P. Gast
President of Lehigh University
Dr. Jessica Gephart
Assistant Professor in Environment Science at American University
Dr. Drew Harvell
Professor Emerita of Cornell University, Affiliate Faculty University of Washington, and Fellow of the Ecological Society of America
Dr. Mark Hersam
Nanomaterials Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University
Dr. Susan Hockfield
President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Peter Hotez
Dean of National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Daniel Kammen
Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley
Dr. LaShanda Korley
Distinguished Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware
Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson
Professor of Epidemiology and Ecosystem Health and Director of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics at the University of California, Davis
Dr. Robert Langer
Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Margaret Leinen
Vice Chancellor of Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy
Professor of Environment Sciences and Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment at George Mason University
Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University and former Administrator of NOAA
Dr. Arun Majumdar
Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
Dr. Prineha Narang
Professor and Howard Reiss Chair in Physical Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Michael Osterholm
Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota
Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health at Rice University
Dr. Geraldine Richmond
Presidential Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oregon, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dr. Barbara Schaal
Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. James Schauer
Director of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene
Ms. Frances Seymour
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute
Dr. Kyle Whyte
George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability
Dr. Elias Zerhouni
Former Director of National Institutes of Health
Dr. Ahmed Zewail
Recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
