As Biden and Harris introduce their science team in Wilmington on Saturday afternoon, it pays to remember that Trump had no use for scientific advice.
Mr. Trump left the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology idle for 33 months. When he reconstituted it in 2019, only one of his appointees was an academic scientist, with representatives of private industry filling out the council.
Biden chose Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, as his director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and added the position to his cabinet. Lander is known for his pioneering work on the Human Genome Project. Biden also selected Frances H. Arnold, winner of a 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Maria Zuber, the first woman to manage a NASA space mission, to serve as co-chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
We’ve seen where ignoring scientists in favor of industry leaders gets us. Now we’re going to get back to normal and put our future in the hands of people who know what they’re talking about.
I’m excited about it.
As a Caltech scientist, this has been one of my best days in recent years.
Lander is probably the best choice for OSTP.
And Frances co-chairing the PCAST with Zuber from MIT will draw the most talented and serious scientists to policy making!
I could not be happier!
Even though this trio includes a NASA scientist, the notion that science might be a beneficial thing to include in national policy is not rocket science. Science has a pretty good track record, and would seem to be essential when economies depend on technology.
I think it is ridiculous to be delighted that the next United States administration is planning to use science to help them govern, but here we are. A related ridiculous delight is that every government department is going to be run by someone competent, someone who cares and someone who will do their best to make things better for the American people. There will be fuckups because government is really hard, but it does matter when a department is well managed. If we did not know that we should have learned it during the Obama administration. An executive that actually executes well can do good things no matter what congress does.
Four more sleeps.