CCST Senior Fellow Carlos Gutiérrez has long been
known for providing opportunities for students to
experience career enhancement through intense
participation in research projects directed by
faculty mentors. It is no surprise, then, that he has
been actively involved in CCST's newest program,
providing professional development opportunities
of a different sort to scientists and engineers
through the California Science & Technology Policy
Fellowships, the first class of which will begin in
November 2009.
The fellowships will enable fellows to work hands
on with policy-makers in Sacramento to develop
solutions to complex scientific and technical issues
facing California through their interaction with the
legislative process, and are intended for people
who want to learn the public policy decisionmaking
process that affects many science and
technology related issues.
Gutiérrez, a former CCST Council member, is the
President's Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
at California State University Los Angeles. He is a
synthetic organic chemist, with interests at the
interface of organic, inorganic and biological
chemistry. Along with colleagues, he has provided
many opportunities for Cal State LA science
students. He has participated in obtaining $35
million in research and research training grants
over the past 25 years to support the activities of
students in his research group and also 25 other
laboratories on campus. He has directed the Cal
State LA Minority Access to Research Careers
(MARC) program since 1978 and the Minority
Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program
since 1992. He is credited with having mentored
over 200 students.
Gutiérrez has served on several standing and
ad hoc peer review committees of the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science
Foundation. In 1995, he was appointed to serve
on the National Advisory Council to the National
Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH. He
was among the first honored by President Clinton
through a Presidential Award for Excellence in
Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring,
at a White House ceremony in 1996, and was
named a U.S. Professor of the Year in 2005 by
the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education.
