The Society for Science announced that Lester Mackey M.A. '11, has joined the Society’s National Leadership Council (NLC). Formed in 2018, the NLC comprises alumni from the Society’s three science competitions: the Science Talent Search, the International Science and Engineering Fair and its middle school science research competitions.

“I am thrilled to welcome Lester Mackey and Naomi Shah to the Society’s National Leadership Council,” said Maya Ajmera, President & CEO of Society for Science and Executive Publisher of Science News. “They are innovators and forces in their fields and will bring invaluable perspectives and expertise to the Society.”

Mackey (STS 2003; ISEF 2003) is currently a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, where he develops machine learning methods, models and theory for large-scale learning tasks driven by applications from climate forecasting, healthcare and the social good. Mackey moved to Microsoft from Stanford University, where he was an assistant professor of statistics and, by courtesy, of computer science. He is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Lester earned his Ph.D. in computer science and master’s in Statistics from Berkeley and his bachelor’s in computer science from Princeton University.