Abstract:     A 1999 Report of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on S&T in U.S. foreign policy asserted that of the 16 stated goals of U.S. foreign policy, 13 of them involve considerations of science, technology or health (STH), and that the Department of State (DOS) is inadequately equipped to integrate these STH considerations into the foreign policy process. One of the report's recommendations was the appointment of an S&T Adviser to the Secretary, who would drive the process of increasing the S&T capacity of the DOS to deal with such issues.

The subject matter is limitless--the global pandemic of AIDS and other infectious diseases; the role of S&T in sustainable development; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; environmental challenges such as global warming, clean water, and declining fish stocks; global trade in genetically modified foods; export controls on critical technologies; and global regimes for satellite applications--just to name a few. There is also the active development of S&T cooperation with other nations. Cooperation on urgent problems of common interest can strengthen political ties with other countries. Furthermore, pooling of limited national resources among nations has become essential for “big S&T” programs, such as the latest high energy physics machine or the development of controlled nuclear fusion as a future source of energy.

Since the tragedy of September 11, there is a new dimension in these relationships—building a worldwide coalition against terrorism, cooperating on cybersecurity to protect global information networks, using technology against the threat of terrorist acts inside the U.S., and more effectively, and responsibly, controlling movement of people across U.S. borders.

It has become apparent that there are three pillars of U.S. national security—intelligence, diplomacy and military preparedness--the warfighters. S&T underlie each of these pillars. And in a world that is not the “New World Order” that we used to hear about, but a world of inordinate disorder, an extra burden is placed on diplomacy. Diplomacy is the last stop before war. When the talking stops, the shooting starts. And the Department of State must be recognized as a vital instrument of national security and budgeted for accordingly. State also needs the advice, counsel and involvement of the nation's S&T community in carrying out its global responsibilities.

Biography:     Dr. Norman P. Neureiter was sworn in as Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State on September 19, 2000. A PhD organic chemist, Dr. Neureiter has extensive experience in government and industry, and a public policy background that includes close ties to academia.

Since taking early retirement in 1996 from Texas Instruments (TI), where he was Vice President of TI Asia, Dr. Neureiter has served as U.S. co-chair of the U.S.-Japan Joint High Level Advisory Committee, a body of leading university and industry representatives that advises the U.S. and Japanese governments on science and technology (S&T) matters under the auspices of the U.S.-Japan Science and Technology Agreement. Concurrently, he served as a U.S. Commissioner of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Joint Fund II, which supports cooperative S&T research between Polish and U.S. scientists under the U.S. Science and Technology Agreement with Poland. In 1998, Dr. Neureiter was appointed to the Committee on International Space Programs of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council's Space Studies Board. Dr. Neureiter has also served as Director (and past president) of the Dallas Council on World Affairs, a Director (and past president) of the Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in New York. From 1973 to 1996, Dr. Neureiter held a variety of positions in Texas Instruments, including Director of East-West Business Development, Manager of International Business Development, and Manager of the TI Europe Division. As Vice President for Corporate Staff, he was the company's principal spokesperson throughout the world from 1980-1989!

From 1989 until 1996, he served as a Director of TI Japan, and Vice President of TI Asia. Prior to his work with private industry, Dr. Neureiter worked as International Affairs Assistant in the White House Office of Science and Technology during 1969-1973, reporting to the President's Science Adviser. In this capacity, he was deeply involved in preparing agreements on cooperation in science and technology initiated in 1972-1973 by President Nixon with the leaders of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

Dr. Neureiter entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1965, serving as Deputy Science Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. From 1967-1969, he was the first U.S. Science Attaché in Eastern Europe, based at the U.S. Embassy, Warsaw, with responsibility for Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. From 1963 to 1965, Dr. Neureiter worked in the International Affairs Office of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, D.C. He became Program Director of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science! Program, created at the initiative of President Kennedy and Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda to encourage closer relations between the scientific communities of the two countries.

Norman Neureiter joined Humble Oil and Refining Company (now part of Exxon Corporation) in 1957 as a research chemist. His research work was in the fields of butadiene chemistry, organic sulfur compounds and the development of antioxidant systems for polypropylene. He registered ten patents and authored a number of scientific publications in the field of organic reaction mechanisms. In addition, from 1957-1960, he was an instructor in German and Russian at the University of Houston. On leave from Humble Oil in 1959, he served the U.S. Government as a guide at the U.S. National Exhibition in Moscow, becoming also a part-time Russian-English escort interpreter for the U.S. Department of State.

Norman Neureiter received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) in 1952 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern University in 1957. In 1955-1956, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Munich, Germany. Dr. Neureiter was born in Macomb, Illinois, on January 24, 1932, and grew up in Geneseo, New York. He reads and speaks German, Russian, Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese. He is married to the former Georgine Reid, and has four children.