Neal Francis Lane

Cornelius Francis "Neal" Lane (born August 22, 1938), is an American physicist and senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and Malcolm Gillis University Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy Emeritus at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

He has served as

Lane was born in Oklahoma City in 1938, graduated from Southeast High School, and earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oklahoma.^[2] His thesis advisor was Chun Chia Lin.

Research, teaching and administration

Initially pursuing a career in teaching and research, Lane carried out post-doctoral studies in the Department of Applied Mathematics at

Serving until the end of the Clinton administration, Lane returned to Rice in 2001 as the institution's first university professor, also serving as professor of physics and astronomy and senior fellow of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He retired from his faculty positions as Malcolm Gillis University Professor and professor of physics and astronomy on January 1, 2015.

Lane continues to serves as senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and co-director of the Baker Institute's Science and Technology Policy Program alongside Dr. Kirstin R.W. Matthews. The Baker Institute is a top-ranked university-affiliated nonpartisan public policy think tank with research programs in energy policy; health policy; tax and expenditure policy; Latin America, Mexico, Middle East, and China studies; drug policy; international economics; politics and elections; religion policy; space policy; and science and technology policy.^[1] The Science and Technology Policy Program aims to develop an active dialogue between scientists and citizens; to propose funding allocations for scientific and biomedical research, environmental policy, and science diplomacy; and to instruct on scientific public policy endeavors.^[12] Lane has worked with Matthews on numerous projects, including the International Stem Cell Policy Initiative^[13] and the Civic Scientist Initiative.

Lane continues to lecture, provide Congressional testimony, meet with students, scholars and leaders in education, business and public policy. He also serves on

• Two-time recipient of George R. Brown Prize for Superior Teaching at Rice University (1973, 1976)^[16]
• Distinguished Service Award, National Association of Biology Teachers (1997)
• President's Award,
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  (1999)
• Public Service Award, American Chemical Society (1999)
• Support of Science Award, Council of Science Societies Presidents (2000)
• AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize (1999)
• NASA Distinguished Service Award (2000)
• William D. Carey Lecture Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2001)
• Public Service Award, American Mathematical Society, American Astronomical Society, and American Physical Society (2001)
• Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Oklahoma (2002)
• K.T. Compton Medal for Leadership in Physics, American Institute of Physics (2009)
• National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal (2009)
• Association of Rice Alumni Gold Medal (2009)
• Distinguished Friend of Science Award from the Southeastern Universities Research Association (2011)
• Vannevar Bush Award from NSF's National Science Board (2013)
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (2016)

Selected publications

1. Neal Lane, "Benjamin Franklin, Civic Scientist", in Physics Today, vol. 56, no. 10, p 41 (October 2003)

2. Neal Lane, "U.S. Science and Technology – An Uncoordinated System That Seems to Work" in special issue "China, India and the United States," of the journal Technology in Society, vol. 30, Nos 3–4 August–November 2008, pp 248–263 (Elsevier, NY, and Science Direct, 2008)

3. Neal Lane and Tom Kalil, "The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Present at the Creation", Issues in Science and Technology, XXI, Number 4 (Summer 2005), pp 49–54 (National Academies, Washington D.C.)

4. Neal Lane, "Science in the seat of power," in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, issue July/August 2008, page 48.

5. Neal Lane, "Essay: American Physics, Policy, and Politics: An Uneasy Relationship," Physical Review Letters, vol. 101, 31 December 2008, page 260001-260009. http://journals.aps.org/prl/edannounce/PhysRevLett.101.260001

6. Neal Lane and George Abbey, "United States Space Policy: Challenges and Opportunities Gone Astray," American Academy of Arts and Sciences (occasional paper) (Cambridge, Mass., 2009).

7. Neal Lane and Kirstin Matthews, "The President's Scientist" in Cell 139, pp 847–850 (Nov. 25, 2009)

8. Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Neal Lane and Kenneth M. Evans, "U.S. Scientific Research and Development 202", in "Science Progress" (July 23, 2011, on-line) http://scienceprogress.org/2011/07/u-s-scientific-research-and-development-202/

9. Neal Lane, "Science Policy Tools: Time for an Update", in Issues in Science and Engineering (National Academies Press, Fall 2011, pp 31–38) .http://www.issues.org/28.1/lane.html

10. Neal Lane and Rahul Rekhi, "Qualitative Metrics in Science Policy: What Can't be Counted Counts," in Issues in Science and Engineering (National Academies Press, Fall 2012, pp 21–24) http://www.issues.org/29.1/rahul.html

11. Norman Augustine and Neal Lane, "What if America had a Plan for Scientific Research?" Inside Sources, on-line -April 28, 2014

12. A.A. Rosenberg, L.M. Branscomb, V. Eady, P.C. Frumhoff, G.T. Goldman, M. Halpern, K. Kimmell, Y. Kothari, L.D. Kramer, N.F. Lane, J.J. McCarthy, P. Phartiyal, K. Rest, R. Sims, and C. Wexler, "Congress's Attacks on Science-Based Rules: Proposed Laws Based on False Premises Could Undermine Science for the Public Interest," Science, pp 964–966, vol. 348, issue 6238, 2015.

References