This podcast is a visit with Texas A&M professor and researcher Dr. Marvin Adams and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

A Texas A&M professor and researcher who also works for the A&M system is one of 30 appointees to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

According to an A&M news release, Dr. Marvin Adams is a renowned nuclear engineer who is considered the nation’s foremost academic expert on stewardship of the nuclear stockpile.

Adams is also the system's director of National Laboratories Mission Support, and was instrumental in the System obtaining a federal contract in 2018 to help manage the Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico.

According to a news release from the White House, PCAST is the sole body of external advisors charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House.

The White House news release also states that the council will provide information "that is needed to inform public policy relating to the economy, worker empowerment, education, energy, the environment, public health, national and homeland security, and racial equity"...among other things.

News release from Texas A&M:

President Joe Biden is turning to a renowned Texas A&M University nuclear engineer to strengthen his panel of top science and technology advisors in areas of national security.

Marvin L. Adams was named Wednesday to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Adams is the HTRI Professor of Nuclear Engineering, a Regents Fellow and the director of National Laboratories Mission Support for The Texas A&M University System.

The President’s Council is a direct descendant of the scientific advisory committee established by President Eisenhower in 1957 in the weeks after the launch of Sputnik. It is a group of external advisors charged with making science, technology and innovation policy recommendations to the president and the White House.

“I am honored to be selected to serve on the President’s Council,” Adams said. “I am sobered by the responsibility we have to provide sound advice and help the nation in these challenging times.”

The 30 members of the council include leading experts in astrophysics and agriculture, biochemistry, computer engineering, ecology, immunology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, national security, social science and cybersecurity.

Adams, 62, is considered the nation’s foremost academic expert on stewardship of the nuclear stockpile. He has served on many review and advisory bodies related to national security and has years of experience working with the military and U.S. scientists at Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Adams is the only academic on the Stockpile Assessment Team of U.S. Strategic Command, which annually assesses the nation’s nuclear capabilities for the president and Congress.

As a researcher, Adams has advanced the nation’s ability to use complex computational algorithms that help gauge the reliability of weapons systems in an era when explosive nuclear testing is banned.

“He has no peer in his field,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M System. “His world-class research capabilities, combined with his first-hand experience in the national labs, make him an outstanding choice for this vital assignment.”

Adams was instrumental in the System obtaining a federal contract in 2018 to help manage the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. He joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1992 after more than five years as a computational physicist at Lawrence Livermore.

“Dr. Marvin Adams’ selection to PCAST is an incredible honor and we are proud of his long affiliation and service to Texas A&M,” said M. Katherine Banks, Texas A&M University President. “Dr. Adams has a rare combination of expertise in nuclear weapons and energy and has played an instrumental role with the national labs. He is an excellent choice for this national thought leadership position.”

Adams is the first Texas A&M professor named to the President’s Council since Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize winning professor of international agriculture, served in the early 1990s.

“I am grateful to be at Texas A&M,” Adams said. “It’s a university that values service to the nation and provides an environment that has helped me grow through my career.

“As a result, I’ve had incredible, unusual opportunities for service in the interest of U.S. national security.”

William Press, a computer scientist, computational biologist and astrophysicist at The University of Texas at Austin, also was appointed to the panel.

From the White House PCAST news release:

President Biden announced 30 of America’s most distinguished leaders in science and technology as members of his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). A direct descendent of the scientific advisory committee established by President Eisenhower in 1957 in the weeks after the launch of Sputnik, PCAST is the sole body of external advisors charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House.

Drawing from the nation’s most talented and accomplished individuals, President Biden’s PCAST includes 20 elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, five MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, two former Cabinet secretaries, and two Nobel laureates. Its members include experts in astrophysics and agriculture, biochemistry and computer engineering, ecology and entrepreneurship, immunology and nanotechnology, neuroscience and national security, social science and cybersecurity, and more.

The members represent the most diverse PCAST in U.S. history. PCAST is traditionally co-chaired by the President’s Science Advisor and 1-2 external co-chairs; since its inception in 1957, no women have ever served as co-chairs. President Biden’s PCAST has two women co-chairs. And, this PCAST reflects the President’s commitment to build an Administration that truly looks like America: for the first time ever, women make up half of PCAST, and people of color and immigrants make up more than one-third of PCAST. Its diversity will help the council bring to bear a wide range of perspectives to address the nation’s most pressing opportunities and challenges, so that science, technology, and engineering benefits all Americans.

“The future of America depends on science and technology like never before,” said PCAST Co-Chair and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Dr. Eric Lander. “President Biden understands that addressing the opportunities and challenges we face – to our health, our planet, our economic prosperity, and our national security – will require harnessing the full power of science and technology. Scientific progress depends on people seeing things in new ways, because they bring different lenses, different experiences, different passions, different questions. This PCAST is uniquely prepared because of its extraordinary scientific breadth, wide range of work experiences, and unprecedented diversity.”

“We are thrilled that some of our most accomplished Americans are willing to step up and serve the nation by being members of PCAST,” said PCAST Co-Chair Dr. Frances Arnold. “Their vast expertise will help the nation build back better through science and technology.”

“Science and technology permeate so many elements of government decision making,” said PCAST Co-Chair Dr. Maria Zuber. “I am excited to bring this historic and brilliant group’s knowledge, experience, and innovative thinking to bear on the nation’s toughest challenges in science and technology and navigate an equitable and inclusive path forward for the nation.”

As directed in the President’s executive order establishing PCAST, the council includes advisors from outside the federal government who are responsible for advising the President “on matters involving policy affecting science, technology, and innovation, as well as on matters involving scientific and technological information that is needed to inform public policy relating to the economy, worker empowerment, education, energy, the environment, public health, national and homeland security, racial equity, and other topics.”

Marvin Adams, Ph.D., P.E., is a nuclear engineer and computational physicist who develops and applies complex computational algorithms to problems related to nuclear energy and national security. He has experience in nuclear reactor physics and design, nuclear weapons analysis and modernization, counterproliferation, and arms control. He chairs the Mission Committee at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which oversees the laboratory’s weapons and global security programs, serves on the Nuclear Effects Advisory Panel for the U.S. Department of Defense, and has served for several years on the Stockpile Assessment Team for U.S. Strategic Command. He is the HTRI Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Regents Fellow, and Director of National Laboratories Mission Support in the Texas A&M University System.