Richard A.
Meserve

Matter at Extreme States

As the 9th President of Carnegie Science, Richard A. Meserve worked hard to recruit and retain top scientific talent and to steward the Carnegie Science endowment to enable these leading researchers with the means to move in novel scientific directions. 

President Emeritus
Washington, DC

Richard A. Meserve is an American scientist, administrator, and lawyer, who served as Chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 1999 to 2003 and as Carnegie Science President from 2003 to 2014. He assumed the presidency after serving for nine years on the institution’s Board of Trustees.

Under Meserve's leadership, Carnegie Science researchers launched the Giant Magellan Telescope project, the former Carnegie Airborne Observatory, and the now-sunsetted Deep Carbon Observatory, and led the MESSENGER mission to Mercury.

He is currently senior council to the prestigious Covington & Burling, where he was formerly a partner. He has long concentrated his practice on issues at the intersections of law, regulation, science, and technology, with a special focus on recent years on nuclear matters.

Meserve is also the chairman of the International Nuclear Safety Group chartered by the International Atomic Energy Agency. He has served on numerous legal and scientific committees over the years, including many chartered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Among other affiliations, he is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Engineering, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. Richard served on the board of directors of PG&E Corporation and Duke Energy Corporation and is a member of the board of TAE Technologies, Inc. He is a former President of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.

Prior to joining Covington & Burling in 1981, Richard served as legal counsel to President Carter's science and technology advisor and as a clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the US Supreme Court.

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