Jay Davis, PhD, Elected President of the Hertz Foundation

LIVERMORE, CA, October 29, 2009 — The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation announced today that Jay Davis, PhD, has been elected President of the Hertz Foundation. Dr. Davis, the Founding Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Founding Director of the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation. The Hertz Foundation, established in 1957, is one of the nation’s leading non-profit organizations focused on empowering innovative young scientists and engineers.

“I am honored to be elected to lead the Hertz Foundation in its quest to find talented young scientists and engineers with the capacity to drive innovation, enhance competitiveness and help solve critical problems we face as a society,” stated Dr. Davis, “I look forward to leading the Foundation’s efforts to discover the next generation of Hertz Fellows.”

During his tenure at LLNL, Dr. Davis and his team built the most advanced and widely used accelerator mass spectrometry lab in the world. Dr. Davis has authored more than 80 publications and has been granted numerous patents. He participated in two UN weapons inspections of Iraq in 1991, and briefed the UN Security Council on his findings. For his contributions to national security as founding Director of the DTRA, he was twice awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Department of Defense's highest civilian award. Dr. Davis has also served on the Board of ANSER Corporation, as chair of the review committee for the Los Alamos nuclear weapons program, and as a member of the University of Chicago Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Davis received his BA in Physics from the University of Texas (1963), his MA in Physics from the University of Texas (1964), and his PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin (1969). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

“Jay Davis’s diverse talents are well suited for the challenge of identifying and cultivating the innovative minds who receive Hertz Foundation Fellowships and of managing this important organization,” stated David J. Galas, PhD, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation. “Jay’s leadership will undoubtedly build on the legacy of Hertz Fellows who provide our nation’s businesses, its government and its academic institutions with many of the country’s top talent from the applied sciences and engineering fields.”

Elected on Thursday, October 23rd by the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation, Dr. Davis succeeds John F. Holzrichter, PhD, who retired from the position of President to which he was first elected in 1999. Dr. Holzrichter will remain active building partnerships with business, government and educational institutions.

“John Holzrichter's leadership skills helped the Hertz Foundation successfully navigate a transition from a private foundation to a public charity over the last decade. We are better positioned as a Foundation today than we were in 1999,” stated John C. Browne, PhD, a member of the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation. “Thanks to John's efforts, we have created a more vibrant community of current and past Fellows, raised new monies to support our future efforts, and developed strategic plans that will guide us in years to come.”

“John Holzrichter successfully guided the Hertz Foundation through the most difficult decade in its history and built a new, dynamic entity in the process. His fund raising activities have yielded millions of dollars in funding for the Foundation and they have established a structure for continued charitable support,” stated Richard B. Miles, PhD, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hertz Foundation.

ABOUT THE HERTZ FOUNDATION
The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is one of the nation’s leading non-profit organizations focused on empowering innovative young scientists and engineers. Since 1963, the Hertz Foundation has identified over 1,095 promising applied scientists and engineers with the potential to change the world for the better and has supported their doctoral research by providing the nation’s most generous applied science and engineering PhD Fellowships. Valued at over $250,000, Hertz Fellowships are unique no-strings-attached fellowships allowing exceptional applied scientists and engineers the freedom to pursue their own ideas with financial independence under the guidance of the finest professors at the country’s top universities. The highly competitive selection process includes a comprehensive application, four references, and two rounds of exacting interviews by recognized leaders in applied science and engineering. More information on the Hertz Foundation can be found at www.hertzfoundation.org.