Robert W. Conn to receive the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award
The Board established the Vannevar Bush Award in 1980 to honor exceptional life-long leaders in the fields of science and technology. Award recipients demonstrate outstanding intellectual merit, dedicated public service and significant contributions to society writ large. Conn, a pioneer of fusion engineering and leader in both science advisory and philanthropy, has proven himself exemplary in all three categories.
“In today’s constantly evolving science and technology landscape, it’s imperative we recognize those who have shown extraordinary leadership in the field as paragons for the future,” Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, chair of the Board’s External Engagement Committee, said. “Bob Conn is one of those people, and the National Science Board is delighted to honor him as this year’s Vannevar Bush Award recipient.”
“In these difficult times for science, it is an unexpected pleasure and true honor to receive this extraordinary award. Named for President Roosevelt’s science advisor and author of the post World War II strategy for science, the economy and national defense in America, I am proud to take just one step in his footsteps,” said Bob Conn, Professor and Dean of Engineering, Emeritus, at the University of California San Diego.
A new era, a crisis, and a rising star
On December 2, 1942, a team of scientists, including the renowned physicist Enrico Fermi, achieved the first self-sustained nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago — in many ways marking the dawn of a new scientific and geopolitical era defined by nuclear energy. Just one day before, and a little under 800 miles away, Conn was born.
This new nuclear era was to define Conn’s early life as a scientist. His interest in science and talent for mathematics naturally led him to study engineering and physics in college. After receiving his Ph.D. in Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Conn began his career as a professor in 1970, serving first at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, then at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Just as Conn's career was beginning, the 1973 Oil Crisis heightened national interest in alternative energy research. Conn was one of the first researchers to study and design potential fusion reactors, which harness the same energy-creating processes that occur in the cores of stars to generate usable electricity. In 1986, Conn co-founded Plasma and Materials Technologies Inc., which developed innovative — and now essential — plasma etching and deposition tools for semiconductor manufacturing.
In 1994, Conn moved to the University of California San Diego, where he became the first dean of its school of engineering. Under his leadership and direction, the school — now known as the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering — became one of the top-ranked schools of engineering in the United States.
Fusing science and the public good
Conn’s academic leadership naturally extended to his more advisory roles in the government. While at UCLA, Conn began serving as an advisor to high-profile policymaking bodies, including the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and multiple Department of Energy advisory committees, one of which he chaired.
In 2009, after a 6-year stint as managing director at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Conn became the second president of the Kavli Foundation, a leading nonprofit supporting physics and neuroscience research, as well as in promoting more robust connections between science and the public.
As president of the Kavli Foundation, Conn co-led a movement to make mapping human brain activity a nation-wide effort. In 2013, because of his determined advocacy, the Obama administration established the U.S. BRAIN Initiative. Conn secured $250 million in philanthropic funding for the effort, complementing the federal initiative’s $500 million annual investment.
Conn also conceptualized and co-founded the Science Philanthropy Alliance to expand private philanthropic support for basic science in the United States. The alliance began with just five other U.S-based foundations, but now comprises more than 35, with the sum of their endowments totaling more than $140 billion.
His most recent work includes co-authoring “The Next 75 Years of Science Policy” with Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences. The book, based in part on the eponymous conference which Conn also helped to organize and support, brings together a variety of policy experts that laid out ideas for how to revitalize the science and engineering landscape and formulate new science policy goals for the better part of the 21st century.
Media Contact: Nadine Lymn, nlymn@nsf.gov, 703-292-2490