 As one of the founding members of a United Nations Industrial Development Organization committee that proposed the establishment of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, he has been a member of its Council of Scientific Advisors ever since.He has served the U.S. government as a member of NIH Study Sections, a member of the Board on Biology of the National Academy of Science,
and the Committee on Biotechnology of the National Research Council

He has also served the Stockholm Environment Institute of Sweden.He has been on the scientific advisory boards of many academic institutions such as the Michigan Biotechnology Institute, the Montana State University Center for Biofilm Engineering, the Center for Microbial Ecology at the Michigan State University, and the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.