Benbow Appointed to National Science Board

APS Fellow Camilla P. Benbow has been appointed by President Bush to serve a six-year term on the National Science Board (NSB).

As a board member, Benbow will counsel the President on scientific issues, as well as oversee the National Science Foundation, a federal agency created in 1950 that promotes and funds research in science and engineering. Benbow joins a prestigious assembly consisting of twenty-four academic and community leaders, including university presidents, distinguished professors, and CEOs.

Benbow is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She is nationally recognized as an expert on gifted education and is particularly interested in identifying the educational experiences and interventions most conducive to developing intellectual talent and excellence in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She co-directs, with David Lubinski, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY), a longitudinal study, continuously funded since 1981, that has been examining the developmental trajectories of over 5,000 individuals throughout the life-span.

Benbow hopes to offer scientific guidance to the President that will benefit the students in America’s schools.

“I am honored by the president’s nomination, and I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to help foster the advancement of scientific knowledge,” she said.

Benbow joins APS Fellow Alan Leshner, Executive Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who currently serves on the Board.