Biography

Dr. Jackson was appointed to our Board in 2021. Dr. Jackson served as the President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1999 until her retirement in 2022. From 1995 until 1999, Dr. Jackson was the Chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. From 1991 to 1995 Dr. Jackson served as a consultant to the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and was also a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University. Prior to such roles, Dr. Jackson was a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1976 to 1991. She has been Co-Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, a member of the International Security Advisory Board to the United States Secretary of State, and a former member of the United States Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Dr. Jackson is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (U.K.), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Jackson is a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the highest award in science and engineering awarded by the U.S. Government. Dr. Jackson is currently a member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Board of Trustees, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and member of the International Security Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of State. She is a life member emerita of the MIT Corporation and a lifetime trustee of the Brookings Institution. She is a Regent Emerita and former Vice-Chair of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Additionally, during the past five years, she served as a director of FedEx Corporation and Public Service Enterprise Group. Dr. Jackson received her PhD and BS degrees from MIT. Dr. Jackson’s extensive leadership, government service and technological expertise make her a well-qualified member of our Board.