Shirley Ann Jackson

Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., served as the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest technological research university in the United States, from 1999-2022. After an extraordinary 23-year tenure, she is now President Emerita. 

Described by Time magazine as “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science,” Dr. Jackson has held senior leadership positions in academia, government, industry, and research. A theoretical physicist, Dr. Jackson holds an S.B. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics, both from MIT.

In 2014, President Obama appointed Dr. Jackson as Co-Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, where she served until January of 2017. From 2009 to 2014, Dr. Jackson served on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and as Co-Chair of the president’s Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee. Dr. Jackson currently serves on the Defense Science Board of the U.S. Department of Defense, on the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), and on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). She also is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Before taking the helm at Rensselaer, Dr. Jackson was Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), from 1995 to 1999. At the NRC, Dr. Jackson conceived and promulgated risk-informed, performance-based regulation, and created a new planning, budgeting, and performance management process. Under Dr. Jackson’s leadership, the NRC authored and advanced the Convention on Nuclear Safety, which was signed by over 170 countries and remains in force today. During her tenure at the NRC, Dr. Jackson spearheaded the formation of the International Nuclear Regulators Association and served as its Chair from 1997 to 1999.