Zale Lecture and Award 2025

By Sahir Qureshi

The Stanford Public Policy Program had the honor of hosting Dr. Arati Prabhakar, most recently President Biden’s Science and Technology Advisor and the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), as the recipient of the 2025 Zale Award for Public Service. The Zale Award and Lectureship were established in 1980, seeking to bring policy leaders from a broad spectrum of public and private sectors for a lecture open to the Stanford community. In past years, the lectureship has hosted such distinguished speakers as civil rights leader Dr. Clarence Jones and now-Congressman Sam Liccardo. 

At the OSTP, Dr. Prabhakar’s work focused on artificial intelligence, health outcomes, climate and clean energy, and the innovation to enable a prosperous and secure America. She previously served as Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  and as Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In the private sector, she was chief technology officer for a specialty materials manufacturer, a venture capitalist investing in startups in semiconductors and cleantech, and the founder of an innovation nonprofit. Dr. Prabhakar is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer, and a Caltech Distinguished Alumna. 

Dr. Prabhakar titled her talk, “The Stakes are High: Science and Technology for our Future.” She started by explaining that we are living in a time of crisis for our democracy as well as for science and technology innovation in the United States, listing the current administration’s harmful actions such as rampant funding cuts across grants and agencies and indiscriminate firing of federal workers. On the science and technology front, Dr. Prabhakar spoke specifically about cuts to federal R&D grants and agencies, the deletion of important scientific data from the public domain, and the targeting of specific research institutions. In the face of the hollowing out of government capacity, she stalwartly defended the need for a renewed and energetic public sector by drawing on her own career of public service work, stating, “Government does accomplish things, and there are things that we need to do that only the government can do.” 

Focusing specifically on health, climate, and artificial intelligence, Dr. Prabhakar presented a glimpse of what a future might look like if we don’t apply science and technology in a positive way, and what a bright future might look like if we do. Using examples from her time in government, she set out versions of the future that were grim, thene contrasted them with visions of a world in which we succeed in the efficient and equitable application of science and technology. Instead of a world where a child only thinks he will live to be in his 50s, we could have one in which no infectious disease outbreak becomes a pandemic, and that child is encouraged to have an active and healthy lifestyle.  Instead of a world where climate change continues to worsen, biodiversity decreases exponentially, and volatile, life-threatening weather conditions are rampant, we can decarbonize and get to net zero emissions to slow down and manage the change. And instead of a world where AI makes everything efficient but exacerbates fraud, discrimination, surveillance, and misinformation, we can harness that efficiency in line with our values to handle complexity that will help us develop new drugs and revolutionize public service provision.

Dr. Prabhakar also spoke about the work she had done in these areas during the Biden Administration. She cited the Biden Cancer Moonshot, which involved work on cancer prevention and early detection, as well as making treatment and care more accessible. Additionally, she mentioned the expansion of clinical trials and the creation of an advanced research projects agency for health. On the climate front, she focused on clean energy, climate resilience, and conservation efforts by the administration, including the Inflation Reduction Act, and she spoke about the creation of an AI safety institute and the boosting of the AI research base to ensure that AI is being used for the public good and not just business productivity.

In Dr. Prabhakar’s last section, she referenced the idea of the U.S. as the greatest experiment in the history of the world and encouraged everyone to take action to conserve and better it. She said that scientists and technologists have a special responsibility to lay out scientific facts as clearly as possible and with humility. Dr. Prabhakar then answered a variety of questions from the audience, ranging from AI’s effects on creative fields to the role of scientists in public service careers. When reflecting on a throughline that has tied together her work across the public and private sectors , she said that she has been motivated throughout her career by the capacity of science and technology to improve people’s lives and to move us beyond today’s constraints to a better tomorrow. 

The Public Policy Program thanks Dr. Arati Prabhakar for her insightful and prescient presentation and is honored to have hosted such an illustrious public servant on campus for the 2025 Zale Lecture.