After 2 years at the helm of U.S. science policy, White House science adviser Neal Lane, 62, will head back to academe when the Clinton Administration ends next month. Physicist Lane announced last week that he will return to Rice University in Houston, Texas, as a professor without portfolio, which allows him to teach in any department. Lane is the first Rice academic to hold such a post.

Lane was Rice's provost in 1993 when President Bill Clinton tapped him to become head of the National Science Foundation. He moved to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1998, where he cemented a reputation as a genial politico who preferred to operate outside the spotlight.

--DAVID MALAKOFF

Related sites

Rice University press release

The Office of Science and Technology Policy