Strong indications are that President-elect Barack Obama has picked physicist John Holdren to be the president's science adviser.
A top adviser to the Obama campaign and international expert on energy and climate, Holdren would bolster Obama's team in those areas. Both are crowded portfolios. Obama has already created a new position to coordinate energy issues in the White House staffed by well-connected Carol Browner, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and nominated a Nobel-prize winning physicist, Steve Chu, to head the Department of Energy. That could complicate how the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which Holdren will run, will manage energy and environmental policy. "OSTP will have to be redefined in relation to these other centers of formulating policy," says current White House science adviser Jack Marburger.
Holdren had been planning to attend a staff meeting this morning with colleagues at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he heads the technology and science program. But instead, he flew today to Chicago to meet with the transition team and prepare for the announcement; initial plans are to release the official news of the appointment on a weekly radio program that Obama records and will be broadcast on Saturday. The transition office declined to comment.
Holdren is well known for his work on energy, climate change, and nuclear proliferation. Trained in fluid dynamics and plasma physics, Holdren branched out into policy early in his career. He has led the Woods Hole Research Center for the past 3 years and served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceInsider) in 2006.
—Eli Kintisch
thanks for greate post
Great post Eli! John Holdren will make a great advisor
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And now that the news is official, further comment @ 2020science:
http://2020science.org/2008/12/20/obama-staking-out-a-science-and-technology-presidency/
This is a good look at John Holdren if you want to see his overview on climate.
http://usclimateaction.org/userfiles/flash/Holdren.html
It's from the American Response to Climate Change Conference held in the Adirondacks this June.
This is a good look at John Holdren if you want to see his overview on climate.
http://usclimateaction.org/userfiles/flash/Holdren.html
It's from the American Response to Climate Change Conference held in the Adirondacks this June.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Holdren can influence a turn away from the use of population growth as a tool for propping up the macroeconomy.
Pete Murphy
Author, "Five Short Blasts"
Idaho National Laboratory developed Nanoantennas capable of absorbing 80% of sun energy compared to current PVC that can only absorb 20% of sun energy, Nanoantennas cost is 10 cent per yard that can be printed or rolled on any surface. Double-sided panels could absorb a broad spectrum of energy from the sun during the day, while the other side might be designed to take in the narrow frequency of energy produced from the earth's radiated heat at night.
A charged future
Although infrared rays create an alternating current in the nanoantennas, the frequency of the current switches back and forth ten thousand billion times a second. That's much too fast for electrical appliances, which operate on currents that oscillate only 60 times a second. So the team is exploring ways to slow that cycling down, possibly by embedding energy conversion devices like tiny capacitors directly into the antenna structure as part of the nanoantennas imprinting process.
"At this point, these antennas are good at capturing energy, but they're not very good at converting it," says INL engineer Dale Kotter, "but we have very promising exploratory research under way." Kotter and Novack are also exploring ways to transform the high-frequency alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) that can be stored in batteries. One possibility is to create antennas with a spiral shape and place high-speed rectifiers, or special diodes, at the center to convert the electricity from AC to DC. The team has a patent pending on a variety of potential energy conversion methods. They anticipate they are only a few years away from creating the next generation of solar energy collectors.
Great news indeed, and congrats on the scoop Eli!
Way to go, Eli!! Great news for everyone and you got the scoop!
Congratulations to John ... and to Eli for the scoop.
Great News!
http://2020science.org/2008/12/18/john-holdren-obamas-new-science-advisor/
Early congrats John! Very well deserved..