Wilson Center Experts

David Rejeski directs the Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP). The mission of STIP is to explore the scientific and technological frontier, stimulating discovery and bringing new tools to bear on public policy challenges that emerge as science advances. STIP focuses on emerging technologies and the critical choices innovation presents to public policy. Work includes synthetic biology (www.synbioproject.org), nanotechnology (www.nanotechproject.org), participatory technology assessment, geoengineering, and the application of information technologies, computer games, and social media to public policy challenges.

He is presently a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute, was a Visiting Fellow at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and an adjunct affiliated staff member at RAND.   Between 1994 and 2000, he worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) on a variety of technology, R&D, and policy initiatives, including the development and implementation of the National Environmental Technology Strategy, the Greening of the White House, and the Education for Sustainability Initiative.

Before moving to OSTP, he was head of the Future Studies Unit at the Environmental Protection Agency. He spent four years in Hamburg, Germany working for the Environmental Agency, Department of Public Health, and Department of Urban Renewal and, in the late 1970’s, founded and co-directed a non-profit involved in energy conservation and renewable energy technologies.

He sits on the advisory boards of a number of organizations, including the Board on Global Science and Technology of the National Academy of Sciences, the expert panel advising DARPA’s ‘Living Foundries’ Program, NSF’s Advisory Committee on Environmental Research and Education; the NSF-funded Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC); the external science advisory committee of the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the Center for Environmental Policy at American University; the National Council of Advisors for the Center for the Study of the Presidency; the Journal of Industrial Ecology; and Games for Change.  Between 2004 and 2009, he was a member of EPA’s Science Advisory Board and he has served on the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors.  He has graduate degrees in public administration and environmental design from Harvard University and Yale University and a degree in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design.