Date

Bement Leaving NSF
National Science Foundation

For the full press release, please go to:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116338&org=OLPA&from=news


Arden L. Bement, the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF),
has been named to lead Purdue University's new Global Policy Research
Institute (GPRI) in West Lafayette, Indiana. Bement will begin his new
post as the director of GPRI--which will draw on seven different science
and research disciplines at Purdue--on 1 June 2010.

Bement was appointed to his six-year term as director of NSF by
President George W. Bush in November 2004. He served as acting director
for ten months prior to this. Under Bement, NSF has seen its budget move
onto a doubling path, created a series of new science and engineering
initiatives around innovation themes, increased its role in the
international scientific policy arena, and increased its commitment to
core basic research areas. NSF is widely recognized as a key driver of
science and innovation advances in the U.S.

During Bement's tenure as NSF director, he oversaw the foundation's
annual budget of more than $7 billion that supports the research and
education of roughly 200,000 scientists, engineers, educators, and
students across the United States. As part of the White House's American
Competitiveness Initiative in 2006, he guided initiatives that supported
the training of the U.S. work force to operate in a high-tech global
economy.

From 1989 to 1995, Bement also served on the National Science Board,
the 24-member policy body for NSF and adviser to the president and
Congress on science and engineering issues. Bement is a former Purdue
nuclear engineering professor and department head and retained tenure at
Purdue during his stints in senior science policy posts in Washington,
D.C. While at Purdue, Bement was the David A. Ross Distinguished
Professor of Nuclear Engineering and former head of Purdue's School of
Nuclear Engineering. He also held appointments in the School of
Materials Engineering and the School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1992 after a 39-year career
in industry, government and academia.

For the full press release, please go to:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116338&org=OLPA&from=news.