UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal has been appointed to the California Council on Science and Technology, a group of 30 eminent scientists, engineers, scholars, and business leaders from the state's major public and private research and instructional universities and private industry.
Twenty years ago, then-state Assemblymember Sam Farr and state Senator John Garamendi wrote the legislation that established the council. Its intended purpose was to provide independent and objective findings on public policy issues involving science and technology that affect the state of California, including the state's competitiveness.
Blumenthal, an astrophysicist, is the only UC chancellor on the council.
Farr, who now represents the Monterey Bay area in the U.S. Congress, said the council "represents the council of creativity for the state's future in science and technology." It is "the smartest council California ever created. If we hadn't started it 20 years ago, we'd be asking to create it now," Farr said.
"I am glad we will have both former UCSC Chancellor Karl Pister and current Chancellor Blumenthal as board members representing our greater Monterey Bay brain trust," Farr said.
Pister sits as chair of the council's governing body, the 15-member board of directors. He served as UCSC's chancellor from 1991 to 1996.
The council celebrated its 20th anniversary February 11.
