Mim John, Peter Cowhey Named New CCST Chair and Vice Chair

Miriam John, former Vice President of the California Division of the Sandia National Laboratories, has been named the new Chair of the California Council on Science and Technology effective January 1. Council member Peter Cowhey has been named the new Vice Chair.

“Mim brings to the position a depth and breadth of experience as a senior executive with Sandia, together with significant advisory roles for Department of Defense agencies,” said CCST Board Chair Karl Pister. “I look forward to her tenure as chair.”

Prior to her position as Vice President at Sandia, John served in a number of managerial and technical roles for the laboratory, whose principal programs include nuclear weapons stewardship, weapons demilitarization, chemical/bio- logical weapons defense, combustion and materials research, advanced lithography development, micro-chemical and remote laser based chemical detection, and distributed, secure advanced computational and information systems. She served two terms as a CCST Council member (2003-2009) and as the Council Vice Chair from 2009-2010.

Newly appointed Vice Chair Cowhey is the Qualcomm Professor of Communications and Technology Policy and Dean at the University of California, San Diego’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. For the past year he has also served as Senior Counselor to the U.S. Trade Representative on strategy and negotiations, an appointment that concludes in February. Cowhey has been a member of the CCST Council since 2007.

“Peter’s presence as Vice Chair will bring an important balance to the work of the Council, thanks to his distinguished career as a social scientist and academic administrator,” said Pister.

John succeeds outgoing Council chair Charles F. Kennel, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Founding Director and Chairman, International Advisory Board, Environment and Sustainability Initiative, University of California, San Diego. Kennel, who is also a CCST Senior Fellow, served as Council chair from 2008-2010.

“Among many accomplishments during his tenure as chair, Charlie was instrumental in creating ties with the Royal Society of London and strengthening collaboration with the National Academies,” said Pister. “I am grateful to him for his dedicated service to the Council, and on behalf of the Board, I thank Charlie for his outstanding leadership.”

The CCST Council is an assembly of corporate CEOs, academicians, scientists, engineers and scholars designed to offer expert advice to the state government and to recommend solutions to science and technology-related policy issues. CCST is a nonpartisan, impartial, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.