In Transition

John P. Holdren, a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an authority on energy and the climate, is expected to be named the new White House science adviser by President-elect Obama. The ScienceInsider news blog reported Holdren flew to Chicago on Thursday to consult with Obama’s transition team and prepare for the announcement, which could come during Obama’s weekly radio address on Saturday.

Holdren was an adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign, served as director of the Woods Hole Reseach Center and taught environmental policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has spent much of his career studying the causes of global climate change, as well as analyzed energy technologies and methods to reduce the danger of nuclear materials.

He would succeed Jack Marburger, who had drawn criticism from science groups for not speaking out more forcefully on climate change and President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. Holdren would likely collaborate with Energy Secretary designate Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, on formulating energy and environmental policies.

For all that brainpower, the scientists’ recommendations would need the blessing of Carol Browner, Obama’s designated “energy czar.”

— Adriel Bettelheim