CCST Newsroom

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is beginning 2014 with new leadership in both the Board and Council. Effective on January 1, Charles F. Kennel, distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, became CCST Board Chair, and Corey Goodman, managing partner and co-founder of venBio, became Council Chair. “CCST is […]

At the request of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is conducting an independent scientific review of oil and gas development technologies in California. On Thursday, January 16th at 9am PST, CCST will host a public webinar (instructions for joining the webinar are below). During the webinar, […]

A collaborative high-tech business incubator in Fresno is opening the door for water and energy technology startups in the San Joaquin Valley, working to build a “Blue Tech” community of water-related companies with a national presence similar to Silicon Valley. The Water, Energy and Technology (WET) Center, located at Fresno State University, includes resources such […]

A large collection of NASA climate and Earth science satellite data are being made available through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud in a novel partnership designed to enhance research and educational opportunities nationwide. To date, several terabytes of data from three satellite and computer modeling datasets have been uploaded to the AWS platform: a […]

Effective this month, the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) has a new deputy director. Dr. Amber Mace, associate director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy, will bring her experience and expertise leading effective science-policy organizations to the CCST team. In addition to providing strategic advice to the […]

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) has released the first report in a new series which analyzes how California can effectively construct a policy framework to help the state meet its ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals over the coming years. The California’s Energy Future – Policy (CEF-P) project follows on CCST’s landmark […]

Four faculty members from California institutions have joined the ranks of Nobel Laureates in 2013, sharing prizes in Medicine and Chemistry. Randy W. Schekman (UC Berkeley) and Thomas Südhof (Stanford University) shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Medicine with James E. Rothman of Yale University for their research on protein transport in cells, and how […]

The California Legislature has unanimously approved a resolution honoring the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) for its first 25 years of service to California. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 75 (ACR 75) honors CCST for having “successfully represented California’s science and technology professions at the highest level and providing independent and objective analyses to the […]

Cal TAC brought together education leaders from around California last week to discuss what current research says about the effect of digital teaching and learning platforms, tools, programs and resources. “The role of information technology has shifted from that of an enabler to that of a transforming culture,” said keynote speaker CCST Senior Fellow Mohammad […]

Art Chester has years of experience both as a research scientist and as a manager in a major private research facility. His experience in both the research and research management communities has helped shape an understanding of the importance of bridging the communications gap between specialists and the general community. Chester is using this experience […]

The California Business Roundtable announced the launch of a new interactive online resource for accessing and filtering state-specific economic data. The California Center for Jobs and the Economy (www.centerforjobs.org) allows users to access employment data by region as well as by demographics and industry sectors. “The factual data that the Center distributes is going to […]

California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) has turned to a trial partnership with NASA to assist in monitoring the vast stretches of levees protecting the Sacramento Delta. The project, “Monitoring Levees and Subsidence in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta”, demonstrated over a three-year period that an airborne radar system is capable of accurately detecting movement and […]

The California Senate and Assembly are honoring the National Academy of Science’s sesquicentennial anniversary with a resolution recognizing the service and contributions of the Academies. “The Legislature takes great pleasure in honoring the National Academy of Sciences for its 150 years of commitment to providing unbiased, peer-reviewed advice on science, technology, and medicine to our […]

The June CCST Council meeting focused on the impact that China’s quest to become a global science, technology and innovation leader will have on California, and the global community as a whole. The dinner speaker, Tai Ming Cheung, is the director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) at UC San Diego. IGCC […]

CCST has released the seventh and final report in its California’s Energy Future (CEF) project, “California’s Energy Future: The Potential for Biofuels“. The CEF project seeks ways the State could meet the mandated reductions of the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, exploring possible energy strategies for California through in-depth […]

On April 18, a virtual roundtable in the “Reinventors” series was held on how to tackle intractable problems in higher education. The roundtable was co-chaired by CCST Senior Fellow Mohammad H. Qayoumi, President of San Jose State University, and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kim Polese, who collaborated on a 2012 white paper on reinventing public education. […]

CCST Council Member Katherine Yelick has been honored by the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Council on Women, which has named her the 2013-2014 Athena Lecturer. The Athena Lecturer award celebrates women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. Yelick, a Professor of Electrical Engineering Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley and also the […]

Jon Kaye, who was recently recognized with a profile by The Oceanography Society, is not your typical oceanographer. He has left the traditional academic path for the world of philanthropy and public policy, helping the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation work to facilitate better science and technology related policy in California. “It boils down to a belief […]

Researchers in the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) are using a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build a high-performance digital network capable of carrying more than twenty times the bandwidth of the current research network. The project, Prism@UCSD, is the latest in a […]

CCST Council Member Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang has been appointed the new president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea’s leading technology school. Kang’s four-year term is scheduled to begin on February 23. “I did not expect this development,” said Kang. “KAIST is facing some organizational challenges, and there was a need […]

A delegation from the California Teacher Advisory Council (Cal TAC) spent three days in Washington, D.C. last week, introducing Cal TAC as an organization dedicated to strengthening STEM teaching and learning throughout California, and briefing Senate staff and Congressional members about their current work on digitally enhanced education. The delegation included Cal TAC Chair Brian […]