The Future of AI Policy: A Fireside Chat with U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05)

Josh Gottheimer represents New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District in the northern part of the state, which includes parts of Bergen, Passaic, and Sussex counties. In Congress, Josh serves on two Committees, including the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the Ranking Member of the National Security Agency and Cyber Subcommittee and is a member of the Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture Subcommittee. Josh also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where he is a member of the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions, the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, and the Task Force on Monetary Policy, Treasury Market Resilience, and Economic Prosperity.

Josh helped launch the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in 2017 and served as Co-Chair during the 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th Congress. He currently serves as Vice-Chair, where he continues to promote commonsense over extremism and works across party lines on key issues, including lowering taxes, protecting our environment, making healthcare more affordable, protecting America’s national security, and improving infrastructure to help the American people.

Josh also serves as Co-Chair of the bipartisan SALT Caucus and the Law Enforcement Caucus, the Co-Chair of the House Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the Innovation Economy, and is a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, the Blue Dog Coalition, and the New Democrat Coalition.

David F. Meaney is a pioneering researcher in traumatic brain injury who has taught at Penn since 1993, following postdoctoral work at the university. As the Solomon R. Pollack Professor of Bioengineering and Vice Provost for Research, he oversees Penn’s $1.4 billion research enterprise, shaping policy and advancing strategic initiatives across the University’s diverse portfolio of research programs. His leadership encompasses strategic planning for research development, administration of new research facilities, and fostering partnerships between Penn and industry while facilitating the translation of discoveries from University laboratories to public benefit.

Prof. Meaney brings to his role extensive experience in research administration and strategic planning, having recently completed his tenure as Senior Associate Dean of Penn Engineering, where he led the school’s dramatic space expansion. He managed 550,000 square feet of research space while leading the planning and construction of 125,000+ square feet of new facilities, including data science and energy research buildings representing a $150 million capital investment. His vision for interdisciplinary collaboration resulted in transformative initiatives including Penn Health Tech, the Center for Precision Engineering for Health (CPE4H), and strategic partnerships that have generated over $25 million in follow-on funding across engineering, medicine, and the life sciences.

During his administrative career, Prof. Meaney has demonstrated exceptional ability to build and nurture research communities. As Bioengineering Department Chair, he helped recruit over 25 new faculty members—including Sloan Fellows, NIH New Innovator Award recipients, and a MacArthur Fellow—while establishing new models for interschool recruitment and joint appointments. His leadership significantly improved faculty diversity and tripled departmental research funding per capita, contributing to the program’s rise from #10 to #4 in national rankings.

An author of more than 150 publications with over 20,000 citations, Prof. Meaney’s research has fundamentally changed our understanding of traumatic brain injury and neural mechanobiology. His laboratory contributed experimental data that revised federal motor vehicle safety standards for head protection—changes that save approximately 3,500 lives annually and prevent more than 200,000 head injuries each year in the US. He co-founded Axonova Medical to translate neural tissue engineering discoveries and pioneered breakthrough diagnostic technologies using brain-derived exosomes that significantly exceed current clinical biomarker capabilities.

His work has been recognized with a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award, and the Richard Skalak Best Paper Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, among numerous honors. He is an elected fellow of both the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). He earned his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively, and serves on multiple editorial boards and scientific advisory committees nationwide.