Board & Officers

Larry Millstein, PhD, JD

President & Program Director

Larry Millstein is a patent attorney with Millen, White, Zelano and Branigan, PC and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology at Georgetown University where he also Chairs the Biotechnology Program Advisory Board. He has also served as Board Member and President of the Foresight Institute, and on the Board of the Washington Academy of Sciences. He earned his BS in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the City College of the City University of New York and his PhD in Chemistry at the University of California at San Diego and the The Scripps Research Institute. He earned a JD at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law. He has served PSW as Membership Director, Program Director, Treasurer, and Vice President before becoming Program Director and President in 2014.

Robert Thompson, PhD

Vice President

Robert Thompson is a Lead Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he leads research teams in the quantum technologies group and provides subject matter expertise and technical support to the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) for the fusion and photonics portfolios.  He was previously a research scientist at the Instituto Superior Tecnico (Portugal), University of Otago (New Zealand), and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). His research areas span quantum field theory in black hole space-times, metamaterial-based transformation optics and invisibility cloaking, and quantum computing.  He earned a BS in physics from Virginia Tech, and MS and PhD in physics from Tufts University.

Robin Taylor, PhD, JD

Corresponding Secretary

Robin Taylor is an attorney and theologian specializing in public theology. She is interested in scientific methodology and the interaction of science with politics and religion. She earned her BS in Business Administration and JD with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University, a MA from United Lutheran Seminary, and a MPhil and PhD in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America. She is a Past President of the Society and has served as Corresponding Secretary since 2012.

Cameo Lance

Recording Secretary

Cameo Lance is a Consultant on outer space with Rhea Space Activity. She specializes in technology innovation, particularly on solutions relating to National Security matters. Previously, she did research on Dark Matter at the DESY facility in Hamburg, Germany and at LNGS in Italy. Cameo earned her BS in Physics from the University of Florida. She has served as Director for Special Projects since 2019.

Brett Magaram, PE

Treasurer

Brett Magaram is a structural engineer and licensed Professional Engineer in over 30 states and the District of Columbia. He specializes in the engineering of cell sites and fiber optic networks in the telecommunications industry. He is broadly interested in science, particularly nuclear power and astronomy. Brett earned his BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Wisconsin Madison and his MBA from the University of Maryland. He has served on the General Committee as Treasurer since 2018.

Anne McQueen

Member at Large
(Social Media)

Anne has a BS in Biology from Sweet Briar College and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University. She worked for the US House of Representatives as well as the Virginia General Assembly. She also consulted for the Federal government where she specialized in exercise planning and technical policy writing. Recently she transitioned to teaching, where she enthusiastically shares her love of science with preschool and elementary aged children. In her spare time, Anne enjoys exploring National Parks with her children and attending rocket launches on the east coast.

Conor Nixon, PhD

Member at Large

Conor Nixon earned his BA in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, his M.Sc. in Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester, and his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, specializing in the study of planetary atmospheres. He is a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on the origin and evolution of the solar system and the search for life on other worlds. Previously, he held a research position at the University of Maryland, College Park, working on NASA’s Cassini mission and serving as Deputy Principal Investigator for the Composite Infrared Spectrometer instrument. He is a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Conor has served on the General Committee as Member-at-Large since 2019.

Carey Lisse, PhD

Member at Large

Carey Lisse, Ph.D. is a frequent contributor to the Society and fully supports its mission of cutting edge education and exploration. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics & Astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1992 while serving as part of the science team for NASA’s Nobel-Prize winning Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission. He has spent the last 30 years studying the local cosmology, i.e. the formation and evolution of solar systems from interstellar gas and dust until they harbor life. He is a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and has been a participating science team member on the NASA Deep Impact, Spitzer, and New Horizons missions. He is also an avid amateur historian.

Lloyd Mitchell, MD

Membership Director

Lloyd Mitchell is a molecular biologist specializing in the area of gene therapy. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of RetroTherapy, which develops therapeutics for the treatment of genetic diseases based on RNA-splicing. He earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, M.S. in Physiology from Georgetown University, and M.D. from the University of Maryland. He is currently also an adjunct Associate Professor at the Howard University College of Medicine.

James Heelan, JD

Special Projects Director

James holds a B.A. in political science from St. John’s University (MN) and a J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. While he enjoys the wide variety of scientific subjects presented at PSW Science, James has special interest in archaeology and related fields. He currently lives in Utah and is an attorney practicing federal sector employment and personnel law with the firm Shaw, Bransford & Roth P.C.