NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2008 -- Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., a resident of Troy, N.Y., and president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn.), will be honored by ASME.  She is being recognized for significant contributions to science and technology education and professional practice; and through her leadership and creativity has inspired others to pursue careers in engineering and science; and for notable public service and contributions to the nation and humankind.  She will receive the ASME Ralph Coats Roe Medal.

The medal, established in 1972, recognizes an outstanding contribution toward a better public understanding and appreciation of the engineer’s worth to contemporary society.  The award will be presented to Dr. Jackson during the 2008 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, to be held in Boston, Oct. 31 through Nov. 6.

Dr. Jackson is the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the United States.  Since her arrival in 1999, Jackson has fostered an extraordinary renaissance at Rensselaer.  This institutional transformation has included the hiring of more than 200 new faculty, new construction and renovation of facilities, innovations in curriculum and the doubling of research awards.

Over the past several years, Jackson has worked successfully to bring national attention to the underinvestment in basic research and to what she has dubbed the “Quiet Crisis” in America—the threat to the United States’ capacity to innovate due to the looming shortage in the nation’s science, engineering and technology workforce.  She has urged a national focus on energy research as a focal point to excite and encourage greater interest in science and engineering careers.

From 1995 to1999, Jackson served as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  During her term she reorganized the agency and completely revamped its regulatory approach by moving strongly to risk-informed, performance-based regulation.  To foster collaboration and nuclear safety assistance worldwide, she also spearheaded the formation of the International Nuclear Regulators Association and served as the group’s first chairman.

A theoretical physicist, prior to her appointment to the NRC Jackson conducted basic research at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J.) and was a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University, N.J.

Jackson is past president (2004) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and former chairman of the AAAS Board of Directors (2005); a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society; and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society and AAAS.  She is a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, is vice chair of the Council on Competitiveness, serves as a trustee of the Brookings Institution and is a life member of the MIT Corporation.  She also serves on the board of directors of the NYSE Euronext (and is chairman of the NYSE Regulation Board), the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and is a director of several major corporations.

Among her recent honors is the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award (2007) and the ASME President’s Award (2006).

Jackson earned her bachelor’s degree in physics and her Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1968 and 1973, respectively.  She is the recipient of 44 honorary doctoral degrees.

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences.  ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the global engineering and technology community.

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