President Obama also announced his intent to appoint several individuals as Members of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science. Their biographies are below.

President Obama said, “I am confident that these impressive men and women will make valued additions to this administration. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

Stacia A. Hylton currently operates her own consulting company, Hylton Kirk & Associates, after having served in federal law enforcement within the Department of Justice for 29 years.  Previously, she served as the Federal Detention Trustee from 2004-2010.  Prior to that, she served in a number of leadership positions within the U.S. Marshals Service from 1980-2004, including Acting Deputy Director, Assistant Director Prisoner Operations, Chief Deputy in the District of South Carolina, and Chief of Judicial Security Programs. She is a recipient of the Attorney General’s Edmund J. Randolph Award and the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service.  Ms. Hylton attended Northeastern University where she earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1983.

Mario Cordero is an attorney in private practice and is currently serving his second term on the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners where he has spearheaded the Port’s pioneering Green Port Policy. During his first term, Mr. Cordero served as Vice-President and President of the Board. Mr. Cordero is also a part-time professor of Political Science at Long Beach City College. He has previously sat on the Long Beach Community Development Commission and served as vice-chair of the Long Beach Ethics Review Task Force. Mr. Cordero has a law degree from the University of Santa Clara and a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from California State University, Long Beach.

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Regents and Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor at Arizona State University. He is also the founding director of the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center. He is the Executive Director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute and The Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science.  Dr. Castillo-Chavez’ awards include the Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, the 2002 SACNAS Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2003 Richard Tapia Award, and the 2010 AMS Distinguished Public Service Award. In 2003 he was the Stanislaw M. Ulam Distinguished Scholar at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was named honorary professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China in 2004. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the recipient of the 2007 AAAS Mentor award and a Fellow of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Dr. Castillo-Chavez is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Banff International Research Station and served as a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Council and Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute Committee.  He is also a member of the National Research Council’s Board of Higher Education and Workforce.

Joseph S. Francisco is the William E. Moore Distinguished Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry at Purdue University.  Dr. Francisco’s laboratory focuses on basic studies in spectroscopy, kinetics, and photochemistry of novel transient species in the gas phase.  He was recently named the President of the American Chemical Society, and served as President of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers from 2005 to 2007.  Dr. Francisco is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 and his B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977.

Inez Fung is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she serves as Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.  Her research focuses on the interactions between climate change and biogeochemical cycles.  Dr. Fung is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society, and a recipient of the Roger Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union. She was a contributor to the United Nations Environmental Programme’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change that was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work.  In 2006 she received the World Technology Network Award for the Environment, and in 2005 she was named one of the “Scientific American 50”. Dr. Fung received her S.B. in 1971 and Sc.D. in 1977 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Margaret Murnane is a Fellow of JILA and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado.  She runs a multi-disciplinary research group using coherent beams of laser and x-ray light to capture the fastest dynamics in molecules and materials at the nanoscale. Dr. Murnane is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 2000, the 2009 Ahmed Zewail Award of the American Chemical Society, the 2010 Schawlow Prize of the American Physical Society and the 2010 R.W. Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America. She received her B.S and M.S. degrees from University College Cork, Ireland, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley.