RPI president Shirley Ann Jackson to join Obama advisory committee

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson has been named to the President Obama's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The announcement was made during President Obama's remarks at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

Before taking her position at RPI -- for which she was compensated $1.3 million, the highest of any university president in New York state, before she announced in March she will take a five-percent pay cut through 2010 -- Jackson chaired the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995 to 1999.

She is also the University Vice Chairman of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Jackson was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT and chairs the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board.

RPI says it will be sending out a statement later today.