NEWS RELEASE, 8/23/99


Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien joins national panels on science and education policy

By Robert Sanders, Public Affairs

BERKELEY--Professor Chang-Lin Tien, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, was recently appointed to two national advisory panels on science and education.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley appointed Tien, the NEC Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, a member of the new National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, a 24-member council chaired by former senator and astronaut John Glenn.

The Glenn commission is charged with developing a strategy to raise the quality of mathematics and science teaching in the nation's classrooms. It will consider ways of improving recruitment, preparation, retention, professional growth and support for mathematics and science teachers in K-12 classrooms.

Other members of the commission appointed July 20 were Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and former University of California Vice President Walter E. Massey, now president of Morehouse College in Atlanta. The commission will submit its findings to Riley in the fall of 2000.

Also last month, Tien was sworn in as a member of the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. The board sets policy for NSF and provides advice to the president and Congress on matters of national science and engineering policy.

The 24 part-time members of the board are appointed to six-year terms by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They are selected on the basis of their eminence in basic, medical, or social sciences, engineering, agriculture, education, research management or public affairs, to represent the views of scientific and engineering leaders in all areas of the nation.

Tien, 64, is one of the world's top experts in the field of heat transfer and thermal science, particularly radiant heat transfer. He has consulted on projects ranging from the Space Shuttle to the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering at the age of 41.

The National Science Board also awards various prizes, including the Presidential Medal of Science.

Tien joins Mary K. Gaillard, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, and UC Santa Cruz Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood, on the board.


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