Mahlet Mesfin, Former Director of AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy
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Dr. Mahlet N. Mesfin is the recent director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Center for Science Diplomacy, where she led the science diplomacy initiatives and served as executive editor of the open-access journal Science & Diplomacy.
Prior to joining AAAS, Dr. Mesfin served as the Assistant Director for International Science and Technology (S&T) at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). There, she led the strategic planning, coordination, and execution of the S&T-focused engagements under the responsibility of the U.S. President’s Science Advisor—including those with China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil, and the G7 Science Ministers—and championed science and technology as an element of the broader U.S. government’s foreign policy agenda. She began her government work through the AAAS S&T Policy Fellowship program, where she worked at the Basic Research Office at the U.S. Department of Defense, and has been a policy fellow with the Committee for Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Engineering.
She received a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a M.S.E. in biomedical engineering and B.S.E. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan. She is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.