Mr. Speaker, I consider it a great honor to come to the floor today to nominate my friend Shirley Ann Jackson for the position of member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

As the chairman pointed out, Dr. Jackson is the 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a leading national research university, which I am proud to say is located in my congressional district in the great city of Troy, New York, and I am also proud to say that Shirley Ann Jackson is a constituent.

Dr. Jackson is widely recognized for her intelligent, compassionate problem-solving abilities and her promotion of women and minorities in science. Dr. Jackson is currently the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a director of many major corporations, including FedEx and AT&T.

She is also a member of the New York Stock Exchange Board of Directors, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Advisory Council on Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH, the U.S. Comptroller-General's Advisory Committee for the GAO, and the Executive Committee of the Council on Competitiveness.

She is also a Fellow at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and is a trustee of Georgetown University, Rockefeller University, Emma Willard School, and the Brookings Institution.

As the chairman pointed out, she is the recipient of many awards and honors, including life membership on the MIT Board of Trustees.

A native of Washington, D.C., Dr. Jackson received both her B.S. in physics and her Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics from MIT. Dr. Jackson also holds 32 honorary doctoral degrees.

Mr. Speaker, as the chairman pointed out, Dr. Jackson is uniquely qualified for this position, and I urge adoption of the joint resolution.