Obama selections science-forward

The first president to grow up with information technology will kick-start an invigorated science program nearly 50 years after John F. Kennedy’s revolutionary space program, leading scientists said. President-elect Barack Obama’s administrative appointments announced in the past month have shown that the new administration will be science-forwad.

‘Obama is an intellectual, and he is interested in knowledge and has faith in the scientific method, rational reasoning,’ Sivan Kartha, coordinator of the Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Climate Program, said. ‘Simply, he has intellectual curiosity.’

Kartha said that while anything the post-Bush administration can do will help the image of the United States in the global science community, Obama’s academic approach, which includes local university intellectuals, is encouraging.

The President-elect has chosen a team of highly accomplished scientists for his administration, including two Nobel Laureates.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology biology professor Eric Lander was chosen as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors, and Harvard physicist John Holdren was named director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

MIT biology professor Leonard Guarente said he is most excited about the appointment of Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy. As the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Chu (who was Boston University’s Commencement speaker in 2007) has been a champion of energy reform.

‘The appointment of Steven Chu indicates that [global warming] will be tackled in the first few days of the presidency,’ Guarente said.

The selection of accomplished scientists is a major step in elevating science and increasing the National Institutes of Health’s budget, he said.

‘I hope it improves funding because it has not increased in eight years and because there is no better way to stimulate the economy than to aid medical research,’ Guarente said.

Pressing issues like climate change, air pollution and drinking water standards could see progress as a result of the selectees’ expertise and add to other issues facing the country Boston Environment Department Director Bryan Glascock said in an email.

‘The energy efficiency and alternative energy issues are also the key to our economic problems and represent a ‘way out’ for our declining role in manufacturing and international trade,’ Glascock said.

Harvard Environment Action Committee chair Zach Arnold said it is important to make note that Obama has not made any policy moves yet.

‘The international reaction after the honeymoon period will be determined by Obama’s ability to translate his promises into reality,’ Arnold, a Harvard junior, said. Obama is perfectly capable of carrying out his promises and the academic science industry will benefit from his presidency, Kartha said.

‘In order to solve the problem, the first thing would be to start to work very diligently in reducing emissions domestically across the whole economy,’ Kartha said. ‘The second thing would be to start to engage in good faith in international environmental leadership.’

However, other issues may take precedence over the environment in the first days of Obama’s presidency, Glascock said.

‘With the current economic crisis and a tense international scene, it may be hard to take on all the environmental issues at once,’ he said.