Obama Cabinet and Key White House Staff
Dr. John Holdren - Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
(Member of National Economic Council)
Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard
Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy, Harvard
Former President, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Nominated: December 19, 2008
Obama’s comments:
“Dr. John Holdren has agreed to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. John is a professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, he’s received numerous honors and awards for his contributions and has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change. I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead.
“John will also serve as a Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology—or PCAST—as will Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Eric Lander. Together, they will work to remake PCAST into a vigorous external advisory council that will shape my thinking on scientific aspects of my policy priorities.”
Others’ comments:
“[Woods Hole Research] Center Founder and Director Emeritus George M. Woodwell commented, ‘John’s talents, vigor, and brilliance in building the Center and its programs over his short term here leave no question as to President-elect Obama’s wisdom in drawing Holdren onto the staff of the White House as Science Advisor. While we yield him reluctantly, we applaud the promise he carries with him into a government and a nation that need his unusual talents and we take pride in having been a part his experience over recent years.’”
—Wood Hole Research Center press release
“Holdren, 64, is best known for sounding warnings on climate change. His charts and graphs illustrating the threat of global warming helped Al Gore, former vice president, win an Oscar for his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
“But his critics say he has overstated the threat.
“Holdren has predicted that global warming could cost a billion lives by 2020 due to rising seas and other climate-related catastrophes.
“Holdren’s views on another controversy, embryonic stem cell research, also are likely to run contrary to those of Bush, who has restricted U.S. funding to minimize the number of embryos destroyed to create new colonies of cells.
“Holdren has already said he thinks the research should advance without the funding restrictions.”
—Boston.com
Approved: February 13, 2009
Appointment Impact:
“Jonathan Lash, president of the Washington-based environmental advocacy group World Resources Institute, cited the choices of Holdren and Chu as signs the new administration will aggressively act on climate change and other scientific issues.
“‘They will tell the president and the American people the truth about the scientific findings on our most important challenges,’ Lash said. ‘Each of them has shown a deep understanding of the risks created by human pressure on our environment, and each has experience and skill in helping policy makers understand and base their decisions on science.’”
—Bloomberg News
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