Alice Gast

Gast was named president of Imperial College London on 3 January 2014, taking up post on 1 September 2014. She succeeded Keith O'Nions. As president, Gast leads the college's strategy, including the development of its new 25-acre campus, Imperial West, and its links to government, industry, philanthropists and alumni.

From August 2006 to August 2014, Gast was the 13th president of Lehigh University. Gast is not the first Lehigh president recruited from MIT. In 1895 they invited Thomas Messinger Drown to take the presidency, for whom Drown Hall is named.[3] In November 2010, Lehigh's board of trustees voted to reappoint Gast to a second five-year term through 2016.[3]

During Gast's tenure, Lehigh completed a campus-wide strategic planning and implementation process, concluded a $500-million capital campaign and raised an additional $225 million in new resources for the university. Gast also expanded the university's work in and with the City of Bethlehem, increased the size of the university's footprint with the addition of the 750-acre Stabler Campus, increased the university's international presence and has perpetuated and expanded innovative new approaches to student-directed learning with the launch of Lehigh's Mountaintop Campus initiative.

In 2010, Gast was selected as one of three new science envoys by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[9] Gast was charged with encouraging U.S. global engagement in science and technology. She has traveled to the Central Asian and Caucasus regions, including Kazakhstan,[3] Uzbekistan,[3] and Azerbaijan.[3] She has advised the White House, the State Department and the U.S. scientific community about the knowledge and insights she has gained from her travels and interactions.

In February 2011, a 16-member panel of scientists led by Gast released a report after reviewing the scientific evidence related to the FBI investigation of the anthrax letters mailed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Anthrax spores contained in the letters were mailed across the country and were responsible for killing five people and sickening 17 others.

The panel declared that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters based on the science alone. Gast stated in a news conference that "We find the scientific evidence to be consistent with their conclusions but not as definitive as stated". She emphasized that this case rested on the complex interface between science and the law enforcement investigation. The panel convened in 2008 after the FBI asked the National Research Council to form a group to conduct an independent review of the scientific approaches, methodologies and analytical techniques used in its investigation and to determine whether the FBI reached appropriate scientific conclusions. The FBI's investigation connected the letter materials to a flask in the lab of a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

The panel reviewed 9,600 pages of material before determining that it could not rule out that there were other sources of the anthrax spores. Panelists whose expertise included microbiology, medicine, physical chemistry, biochemistry and forensic science were not asked to judge the law enforcement investigation.[3][10]

Gast serves on a number of national advisory committees and boards, including the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is a member of the Academic Research Council for the Singapore Ministry of Education and the National Research Council Committee for Science, Technology, and the Law. She is a member of the AAAS, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Physical Society.

In October 2012, Gast was elected to the board of directors of the Chevron Corporation, one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. Gast will serve on the company's audit committee.

John Watson, chairman of Chevron Corporation, said "Dr. Gast has tremendous technical and industry expertise that will be a valuable addition to our board discussions. We look forward to welcoming her to the board.”

Gast is a member of the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative Steering Committee, and in 2011, she joined other national leaders in Washington, D.C. for the 25th anniversary of the Council on Competitiveness, a day marked by the public release of the council's long-awaited strategy to improve American competitiveness and spur economic recovery through increased manufacturing.[3]

In 2012, the Council on Competitiveness held a two-day conference at Lehigh, titled “Leveraging the Talent Development Process to Drive Innovation.” The conference was sponsored by the council, Lehigh, and Air Products.

Professor Gast is Chair of the World Economic Forum Global University Leaders' Forum (GULF)[11] and is also a member of the Advisory Board for the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In 2006, Gast co-chaired (with Jacques S. Gansler, vice president for research, University of Maryland) a non-partisan committee that produced an extensive report on "Science and Security in a Post 911 World: A Report Based on Regional Discussions Between the Science and Security Communities Committee on a New Government" (University Partnership for Science and Security) that was published by the National Academy of Sciences.[12]

Gast and Gansler co-authored an op-ed in the July 11, 2008 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, citing a concern that the unintended effects of restrictive federal government policies on scientific research include impeding the nation's ability to be economically competitive and defend itself against potential threats.

They wrote: "It's time for researchers and intelligence officials to work together and devise policies that strike the appropriate balance between science and security. Toward that end, our committee recommends that the federal government establish a standing entity, preferably a high-level Science and Security Commission chaired by the national-security adviser and the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy."[13]

In March 2009, Gast authored an op ed that appeared in Science magazine, in which she sounded a note of caution in the way that the short-term funding for scientific research contained in the U.S. economic stimulus package will be spent.

"Transformative change requires long-term investment in the nation's intellectual infrastructure," she wrote. 'Shovel ready' makes sense for getting people to work on deferred infrastructure needs, but how does it relate to the scientific research and education programs needed to address the many challenges looming before us?"

Long-term research and education provide innovative, creative discoveries that spur transformative change, Gast noted. "The United States needs to start making the down payment on this exploration, knowing that the needed breakthroughs cannot be generated within the next two years. As science funding agencies begin awarding their one-time money, they must be mindful of the sustainability of their programs. The recent signing of the fiscal year 2009 omnibus bill with its 4.7% increase for agencies funding science and technology R&D is a welcome sign. Maintaining that momentum in the coming years will be essential."[14]

In recognition of her achievements, Gast has received numerous awards and honors including the NAS Award for Initiatives in Research, the Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1998 she received the Humboldt Research Award. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. She was named an AAAS Fellow in early 2007.

In October, 2008, Gast was named one of the top 100 "Modern Era" engineers in the country, under the category of "Leadership" by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.[15]

In 2017 she became a Fellow of The City and Guilds of London Institute.[16]

In June 2010, Gast received an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario at their 295th Convocation.[17] She also has received honorary degrees from Notre Dame,[18] the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,[19] and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie.[20] In 2017 she received an honorary professorship from Tsinghua University.[21]

In 2019 Gast was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).[22]