Senate confirms three gubernatorial appointments to OCAST governing board

June 1, 2012

Three nominations by Governor Mary Fallin for the Oklahoma Science and Technology Research and Development Board (OSTRaD) have been confirmed by the state senate. One of the confirmations is a new member of the board and two are reappointments. The three will join the 21-member governing board for OCAST, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

Steven Rhines, who begins his first term on the OCAST governing board, serves as vice president, general counsel and director of public affairs for the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore.

Rhines was a patent attorney in the Dallas office of the international law firm of Sidley Austin LLP before joining the Noble Foundation. Rhines received a bachelor in science in mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma and a juris doctorate from Southern Methodist University. The Noble Foundation is a nonprofit institution conducting agriculture consultation and educational programs as well as agricultural and plant science research to enhance agriculture regionally, nationally and worldwide.

Karl N. Reid, recently-retired dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (CEAT) at Oklahoma State University, was reappointed with the senate confirmation. He received the doctor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and BS (petroleum option) and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from OSU. He served on the faculty at MIT for four years, coming to OSU in 1964 as an assistant professor. He was the tenth dean to lead the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and at 24 years, he was the college’s longest serving dean.

Dr. Reid was founding director of the Oklahoma Center for Integrated Design and Manufacturing. He is the founder and director of the Web Handling Research Center at OSU, initiated in 1986 as an NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.

Also reappointed, Timothy Mather, is the director of research administration for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Mather received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma after earning degrees at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.

At OMRF, Mather has held several positions with the Cardiovascular Biology Research Program and he is an adjunct professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

OCAST is the state’s technology-based economic development agency. The agency competitively funds Oklahoma researchers through an internationally-accepted method of outside peer review designed to select proposals that meet rigid criteria for scientific merit and potential for commercialization.