Press Release - President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

•      Maura Connelly, Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, Department of State

•      Daniel B. Smith, Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic, Department of State

•      Subra Suresh, Director, National Science Foundation

President Obama said, "I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to take on these important roles in my administration. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years."

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

Maura Connelly, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, Department of State

Maura Connelly is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. She is currently a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Prior to that she was the Charge d' Affaires for the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria. Ms. Connelly previously served as the Political Minister-Counselor for the U.S. Embassy in London, U.K. and was the Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. She was also the Deputy Counselor for Political Affairs for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. Other overseas posts include Jordan, Algeria and South Africa. Connelly received a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Masters in National Security Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

Daniel B. Smith, Nominee for Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic, Department of State

Daniel B. Smith is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. He is currently the Executive Secretary of the State Department. Prior to that he was the Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs. Dr. Smith has also served as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Global Affairs; Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for European and Canadian Affairs; and Country Officer for Czechoslovakia. Overseas posts include Bern, Istanbul, Ottawa and Stockholm. He received his B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Subra Suresh, Nominee for Director, National Science Foundation

Subra Suresh is currently Dean of the School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Suresh served as the head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He joined MIT in 1993 as the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and since then has held joint faculty appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Engineering, as well as the Division of Health Sciences and Technology. From 1983 to 1993, Dr. Suresh was a faculty member in the Division of Engineering at Brown University. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences in Bangalore, the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World based in Trieste, Italy, and the German National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Suresh is the recipient of the 2007 European Materials Medal, the highest honor conferred by the Federation of European Materials Societies, and the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, an M.S. from Iowa State University, and a Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Suresh also holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Technical University of Madrid in Spain and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.