McRobbie serves on NIST advisory group

The National Institute of Standards and Technology appointed IU President Michael McRobbie to serve on the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology, one of NIST’s eight Federal Advisory Committees. His three-year term on VCAT started Thursday.

VCAT is a NIST committee that “shall review and make recommendations regarding general policy for NIST, its organization, its budget, and its programs, within the framework of applicable national policies as set forth by the President and the Congress,” according to NIST Web site. 

This year, McRobbie joined the VCAT along with two other newly appointed members, Shaygan Kheradpir, executive vice president and chief information officer for Verizon Communications and Sujeet Chand, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Rockwell Automation.

Gail Ehrlich, executive director of the VCAT, said the NIST recognized McRobbie for his distinguishing leadership in technology development and research.

“We are really glad to have President Michael McRobbie joining us this year,” Ehrlich said. “His dedication and experience in academia, information technology researching and high-level computer networking really accommodate the needs of VCAT.”

Ehrlich said the VCAT will have three meetings every year, each of which will run two days.

Also, the Committee is required to send an annual report that captures all the reviews and recommendations made during the year to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, which will eventually be forwarded to Congress.

In selecting its members, the Committee required that they should have “established records of distinguished service and shall be eminent in fields such as business, research, new product development, engineering, labor, education, management, consulting, environment and international relations;” none of them should be federal government employees.

In 2010, there are three meetings, and the first one McRobbie could attend is on June 8 and 9, where he will meet with other members such as Vinton Cerf, vice president as well as chief Internet evangelist for Google,who leads the VCAT and Alan Taub, vice president for global research and development for General Motors Company.

“I am truly honored by this selection and look forward to the opportunity to work with such distinguished individuals, including renowned computer scientist Vinton Cerf and my fellow appointees, to strengthen the nation’s competitiveness in a 21st century economy,” McRobbie said in a press release.