Clinton names scientists to lead panel

President Clinton has appointed two scientists to be co-chairmen of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, a group that provides executive-level guidance on computing issues.

Raj Reddy, who until July was the dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, who spent most of his career as a scientist in private industry, will lead the committee, which reports to the executive-level Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Reddy, who earned a doctorate from Stanford University, has worked for Carnegie Mellon for much of his career. Among his awards is a Legion of Honor commendation by President Francois Mitterand of France.

Wladawsky-Berger, who received a doctorate from the University of Chicago, has served since 1995 as general manager of the Internet Division within IBM Corp., a company he joined in 1985. He also has served on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee—although not as a co-chairman—since 1997.

The committee oversees a $1 billion, multiagency research and development program that was established by the 1991 High Performance Computing Act. The act required the establishment of the committee.