Dr. E. William Colglazier is Editor-in-Chief of Science & Diplomacy and Senior
Scholar in the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for
Advancement of Science (AAAS). He works there to advance knowledge andpractice on science policy and science diplomacy and to support international
collaboration and cooperation in science and technology. He served as the fourth
Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State from 2011 to 2014. In
this non-political position of fixed term, his role was to provide scientific andtechnical expertise and advice in support of the development and implementationof U.S. foreign policy. From 1994 to 2011, he served as Executive Officer of theU.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Research Council (NRC)
where he helped to oversee the studies that provide independent, objective
scientific advice on public policy issues. From January 2016 to January 2018 heco-chaired the 10-Member Group appointed by the U.N. Secretary General toadvise on science, technology, and innovation for achieving the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.
He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute ofTechnology in 1971, and prior to 1994 worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Center for Science andInternational Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and theUniversity of Tennessee. While at Harvard, he also served as Associate Directorof the Program in Science, Technology, and Humanism of the Aspen Institute.
As Professor of Physics at the University of Tennessee, he directed several
research centers dealing with environmental, energy, nuclear, and waste
management issues and worked with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and Oak Ridge Associated Universities. In 1976-77, he was an AAASCongressional Science Fellow working for Congressman George Brown. He ispast chair of the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society(APS) and Fellow of the AAAS and APS. He was a distinguished Visiting Fellow
at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, Austria,and former Member of the Emerging Technology and Research Advisory
Committee for the Department of Commerce.
In 2015 he received the Joseph A. Burton Forum Award of the APS thatrecognizes “outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution ofissues involving the interface of physics and society” and the Order of the RisingSun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, from the Japanese government for“contributing to science and technology exchange and mutual understanding
between Japan and the United States.”
He is currently Board Member of CRDF Global; Board Member of the AmericanFriends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Board Member of theExternal Advisory Committee for the Office of Research and Engagement at theUniversity of Tennessee; Vice Chair of the Forum on Physics and Society andMember of the Committee on International Scientific Affairs of the APS. At theNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, he is a member ofthe Innovation Policy Forum, the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology,
the Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, the U.S. National
Member Organization for IIASA, and the U.S. Liaison Committee for theInternational Union of Pure and Applied Physics.
July 2018