Lane, Neal F.
Oral history interview with Neal Lane, 2021 March 15.
Interview with Neal Lane, University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, with an additional affiliation at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Lane recounts his childhood in Oklahoma and his education at the University of Oklahoma, where Chun Lin became his thesis advisor for his research on the excitation of a sodium atom from its ground state. He discusses his postdoctoral appointment at Queens University of Belfast to work with Alex Dalgarno before taking a position at JILA in Boulder. Lane describes his work with Sydney Geltman and the opportunity to take a faculty position at Rice, and he discusses his role as NSF physics division director. He narrates his decision to become chancellor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, before returning to Rice to serve as provost. Lane describes how the Clinton administration invited him to lead the NSF. He explains the importance of direct communication with OMB, his relationship with Al Gore, and the key guidance offered by National Academy reports. Lane describes the LIGO effort from his vantage point at the NSF, and he explains his time as director of OSTP and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Lane discusses his work for PCAST and in the creation of the NNSA, and he describes returning to Rice after Gore lost the presidency, where the Baker Institute allowed him an environment to continue working in science and policy. At the end of the interview, Lane emphasizes the power of human connections as the foundation of all good science and policy endeavors.
Neal Lane is University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, with an additional affiliation at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma and a postdoctoral appointment at Queen's University of Belfast. Lane has served as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, provost at Rice University, and director of the National Science Foundation under the Clinton administration.
Dalgarno, A.
Geltman, Sydney, 1927-
Gibbons, John H., 1929-
Gore, Albert, 1948-
Lane, Neal F.
Lin, Chun C.
Marburger, John H., III (John Harmen), 1941-2011
Mikulski, Barbara
Rupp, George.
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (U.S.)
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (U.S.)
Queen's University of Belfast
Rice University
United States. Department of Energy
United States. Office of Science and Technology Policy.
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Oklahoma
Atomic physics
Collisions (Nuclear physics) fast
Public policy.
Quantum theory
Science and state
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA