Alan I. Leshner has been Chief Executive Officer of AAAS and Executive Publisher of the journal Science since December 2001. Previously, he was Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from 1994 to 2001. One of the scientific institutes of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, NIDA supports over 85 percent of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. Before becoming NIDA Director, Dr. Leshner had been the Deputy Director and Acting Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He went to NIMH from the National Science Foundation, where he held a variety of senior positions, focusing on basic research in the biological, behavioral and social sciences, science policy and science education. Dr. Leshner was a Professor of Psychology at Bucknell University for 10 years. He also has held long-term appointments at the Postgraduate Medical School in Budapest, Hungary; at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center; and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Dr. Leshner is the author of a major textbook on the relationship between hormones and behavior, and has published extensively on the biological bases of behavior and in the areas of science and technology policy, science education and public engagement with science. Dr. Leshner received an undergraduate degree in psychology from Franklin and Marshall College, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physiological psychology from Rutgers University. He holds honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Franklin and Marshall College and the Pavlov Medical University in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is a Fellow of AAAS, the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. He was appointed by the President in 2004 to serve on the National Science Board.