John P. Holdren is Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School, as well as Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. He is also the Director of the Woods Hole Research Center and from 2005 to 2008 served as President-Elect, President, and Chair of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His work focuses on causes and consequences of global environmental change, analysis of energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy.
He chose a environmental scientist, not a biotech scientist. That is huge. He also lists a recent paper called “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being”, which is a also a great sign, and another blow to repro-tech transhumanist progressives, for whom the word “sustainable” means “luddite”. Things are really looking good these days.
about genetic engineering.
Ho-ho!
ho-ho-ho!
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p>We’ve really gone off the rails now.
but I’m not that clever haha
Obama’s also announced his pick to lead NOAA, Jane Lubchenco, who is a world-renowned marine biologist whose specialty has been studying “dead zones” in the ocean, particularly a few off the coast of Oregon. She is brilliant – she’s been the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship – and she has administrative experience; she’s been the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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p>NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is, of course, one of the leading governmental scientific bodies, and the leading environmental scientific body. Their job is to study the environment – perhaps most famously in the form of the National Weather Service – and advice the policy makers in the EPA, Interior, Commerce (of which they are technically a part – go Bill Richardson!) and other departments on what’s going on.
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p>Having a real scientist leading NOAA will, I think, be a huge boon to our understanding of what’s going on with our environment. Her training and expertise should allow her to far outdo the last guy, who was a Navy Vice Admiral prior to taking the helm at NOAA. I’m not sure why he was picked to begin with, except that maybe Bush thought a Navy guy should be in charge of oceanic research?
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p>Regardless, I look forward to a real scientist playing such an important role in our environmental research and policy.
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p>And, as a side note, I had no idea until just now that NOAA was part of Commerce. Looks like Richardson’s actually got quite a bit on his plate. I still think he would have been better at State, but Commerce is much bigger and broader than I’d originally thought, and he’ll be a good fit there.