Cristián Samper Elected Chair of Carnegie Science Board of Trustees
Washington, DC—The Carnegie Science Board of Trustees have announced that Cristián Samper has been elected chair after 14 years of service as Trustee. Samper will begin his term on July 1 and succeed former Intel Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett, who was elected chair in 2019 and will continue his service as a Trustee. The Board also elected quantum physicist Mark Jackson to a Trustee position.
“For 124 years, Carnegie Science has stood at the forefront of scientific innovation as a professional home to pioneers such as Edwin Hubble, Vera Rubin, Charles Richter, and Barbara McClintock,” said Carnegie Science President John Mulchaey. “Today, our scientists are working across vast scales from ‘star stuff’ to planets, planets to life, and life on Earth to life elsewhere. The trajectory we’re on requires visionary thinking, and Cristián has demonstrated such prescience in his leadership as a scientist and administrator. I’m looking forward to working with him to usher Carnegie Science into a new era, building on Craig’s seven years of hard work as chair.”
Samper is currently the Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions at Bezos Earth Fund. He previously served for a decade as President & Chief of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) for a decade. In this role, which ended in 2022, he oversaw the largest network of urban wildlife parks, which receive 4 million visitors each year, and host long-term field research and conservation programs in more than 60 countries. Samper served as Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History from 2003 to 2012 and was the founding director of Colombia’s Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Institute in 1995. He served as Chair of the science advisory body of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and was one of the leaders of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Raised in Colombia, he studied biology at the Universidad de Los Andes and earned his master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
“This is a pivotal time for scientific institutions across the world,” said Samper. “The advantages of Carnegie Science’s model, from its nimbleness to its instrumentation capabilities, make it well-suited to advance discovery during this period. I am grateful to Craig for his leadership the past few years and I look forward to working with John and the other Trustees to steer the institution into the future.”
Jackson is a quantum physicist and the Senior Quantum Evangelist at Quantinuum, a world-leading quantum computing company. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from Duke University and Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Columbia University, he spent 10 years researching superstring theory and cosmology, co-authoring almost 40 technical articles. To promote the public understanding of science, he founded the science crowdfunding platform Fiat Physica and non-profit Science Partnership Fund. He is Adjunct Faculty at Singularity University and an Entrepreneur In Residence at Yale Ventures. He is a leading voice in quantum computing with more than 300 keynote and panel talks.
In addition to Samper, Jackson, and Barrett, the Carnegie Science Board of Trustees includes: David W. Thompson (Vice Chair), Ann Bonaparte, Suzanne Brenner, John F. Crawford, Michael Duffy, Tom Korzenecki, Michael Long, Mary Maxon, Christine McCarthy, Mulchaey (ex-officio), Stephen Quake, Ray Rothrock, David N. Spergel, Christopher T.S. Stone, Marshall Wais, and Michael G. Wilson.
