Catherine Woteki is professor emeritus of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University and a distinguished fellow of the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute. She served on President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chaired the Division of Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council.

Woteki was the inaugural under secretary for food safety of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and then chief scientist and under secretary for the USDA’s research, education, and economics mission, where she developed the Office of the Chief Scientist, established the USDA Science Council, and instituted the department’s first scientific integrity and open data policies. Woteki served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-authored the Clinton Administration’s policy statement, “Science in the National Interest.” She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (then the Institute of Medicine) in 1999.