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.