APPOINTMENTS

Monday, December 22, 2008 12:53 PM

Obama Rolls Out Science Team

By TOM MADIGAN

President-elect Barack Obama announced his science team Saturday, telling viewers and listeners in his weekly address about the importance of "free and open inquiry" and "listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it's inconvenient -- especially when it's inconvenient."

Obama's nominee for science adviser is John Holdren, director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Holdren, a physicist known for his work on global warming, is "one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change," Obama said.

Holdren was also picked to chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology along with Harold Varmus and Eric Lander. Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health under President Clinton, becomes the second Nobel Prize-winning scientist picked for Obama's team, joining Energy nominee Steven Chu. Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, was a leader in the effort to map the human genome.

Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist and climate change specialist at Oregon State University, is Obama's nominee for administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Obama also said that in the new year, he would discuss how to "engage leaders in the technology community and harness technology and innovation to create jobs, enhance America's competitiveness and advance our national priorities." Google executive and Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf discussed the prospects for those goals and more in a recent interview with NationalJournal.com.