Obama's Science Team

President-Elect Barack Obama has announced the key figures in his scientific team, including two Nobel Prize-winners. The announcements of his scientific team was made on December 17, during his weekly webcast.

Dr. John Holdren - Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)

Dr. Holdren is a physicist who has worked extensively on climate and energy research and policy. He is a Harvard professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy (at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government).

Dr. Harold Varmus - Co-Chair of PCAST

Dr. Varmus was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his "discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes," which is a major discovery in studying the causes of cancer and tumor growth

Dr. Eric Lander - Co-Chair of PCAST

Dr. Lander is one of the driving forces behind the mapping of the human genome and Founding Director of the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco - Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Dr. Lubchenco is a former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a leading ecologist and environmental scientist, whose expertise will prove invaluable in conserving marine and coastal resources.

On December 15, the President-Elect announced the selection of Dr. Stephen Chu of Stanford University as his appointment for Secretary of Energy. Stephen Chu was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of laser-cooling, a means of using lasers to trap atoms. Dr. Chu works with the Berkeley National Laboratory where, according to Obama, he has worked on forms of new alternative and renewable energies (although, to be honest, his personal profile doesn't indicate that this is particularly his area of focus).

It is nice to see such high-calibre choices from the science community to help define America's energy and science policies.