There she was Study Executive Director for the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Panel of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST, whose members are appointed by President Clinton, is the highest level private sector science and technology advisory group for the President and the National Science and Technology Council. Prior to her appointment at PCAST, Lane was a Program Director of the National Science Foundation, where she managed two programs, which The Academy of Natural Sciences were concerned with the discovery of biodiversity and stewardship of natural history collections such as those at the Academy.

As the Academy's Vice President of Biodiversity, Lane will oversee the workings of the following science departments: entomology, botany, mammology, mineralogy, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate paleontology, malacology, ornithology, vertebrate biology/paleontology, invertebrates, and diatoms. She sees her new position as "a move away from doing science to promoting and facilitating the world-class research currently under way at the Academy.

"The Academy can do the kind of research we need to better manage the Earth's sustainable resources," Lane said. "Right in our own specimen collections we have an important record of environmental history covering millions of years from which to draw valuable information." One of her main goals is to make this scientific expertise accessible for the benefit of society.

Lane taught for 27 years at the college level, and she has had much past experience enlightening the public about the natural world, beginning with her summers in the early 1970s as a Seasonal Interpretive Ranger at Yellowstone National Park. She graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in biology, stayed on to earn a masters degree in botany, and then a Ph.D. in botany at the University of Texas.

Lane replaces Dr. Jon Gelhaus, who was Acting Vice President for Biodiversity from 1996 through June of this year. Gelhaus, a world authority on crane flies, resumed his duties as Associate Curator of Entomology.