Dr. Arden L. Bement, Jr. has served as the 12th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) since November 24, 2004. Bement’s education includes an engineer of metallurgy degree from the Colorado School of Mines and a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Michigan.

 

A retired Lieutenant Colonel of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Bement worked as a senior research associate for General Electric from 1954-1965. He was then a manager in the Fuels and Materials Department and the Metallurgy Research Department at Battelle Northwest Laboratories from 1965-1970. He served as a professor of nuclear materials at MIT from 1970-1976.

 

From 1976-1979, Bement served as the director of the Office of Materials Science for the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) at the Pentagon. He was promoted in 1979 to deputy under secretary of defense for research and engineering. In 1980, Bement returned to the private sector as vice president of technical resources and of science and technology for TRW Inc.

 

In 1992, Bement joined the University of Purdue faculty. There, he held appointments in the schools of Nuclear Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a courtesy appointment in the Krannert School of Management. He was director of the Midwest Superconductivity Consortium and the Consortium for the Intelligent Management of the Electrical Power Grid.

 

On December 7, 2001. Bement was appointed to be director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), position he held until he was chosen to be director of the National Science Foundation.

 

He also serves as a member of the US National Commission for UNESCO and as the vice-chair of the Commission’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Committee. 

 

Official Bio