New science posts may herald policy change

Washington: US President-elect Barack Obama yesterday named Harvard physicist John Holdren and marine biologist Jane Lubchenco to top science posts, signalling a change from Bush administration policies on global warming that were criticised for putting politics over science.

Both Holdren and Lubchenco are leading experts on climate change who have advocated forceful government response.

Holdren will become Obama's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees ocean and atmospheric studies and does much of the government's research on global warming.

'Free and open inquiry'

Holdren also will direct the president's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Joining him as co-chairs will be Nobel Prize-winning scientist Harold Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Eric Lander, a specialist in human genome research.

"From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way," Obama said in announcing his selections.

"...the truth is that promoting science isn't just about providing resources - it's about protecting free and open inquiry. It's about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted."