White retires from engineering academy

Abstract

One of the major figures in the science and technology policy arena for three decades quietly stepped off the stage last month when Robert M. White retired after 12 years as president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The passage for White, 72, was bittersweet. Although he left a proud record as a shaper of science and technology policies, and brought NAE into its current era of policy relevance and respectability, he retired without an endorsement of his tenure by a majority of NAE members. White had hoped his successor would be chemical engineer Cornelius J. Pings, president of the Association of American Universities. He was crestfallen when Pings unexpectedly lost to an anti-White candidate, aeronautical engineer Harold Liebowitz, also 72, of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Pings was White's choice, was nominated by an NAE selection committee, and was considered a shoo-in for the presidency. But the NAE leadership underestimated the force ...