The Divisions of Chemistry and Chemical Transport Systems jointly fund this award to the National Academy of Sciences to support the core activities of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (BCST). The PI of this award is Dorothy Zolandz. The BCST serves as the locus of chemical and chemical engineering expertise within the National Research Council, an institution recognized and respected for the independent technical advice it gives federal agencies. BCST has broad representation from academe, industry and non-profit organizations, and uses the collective expertise to identify the needs for topical studies, brings this to the attention of decision-makers, and works with them to obtain funding and needed technical advice to address these issues. BCST responds via peer reviewed consensus reports, workshops and symposia, and has broad outreach into the chemical community and beyond.
There are three primary goals of the activities proposed: (1) BCST will meet three times a year to identify areas of particular importance to the well being of the nation and/or the chemical sciences and to discuss topics that chemistry and chemical engineering might impact; (2) BCST will increase its outreach to new audiences to expand general knowledge of the capabilities of chemists and chemical engineers to society, and; (3) BCST will continue its oversight of studies carried out under its authority to ensure that the study task is appropriate, that the experts tapped for committee service have the best qualifications, and that the reports are of the highest quality and well-grounded in objective scientific reasoning.
