Category: John Holdren

John Holdren on Fusion Energy

From ScienceInsider….

John Holdren, Obama’s science advisor, is actively supporting new investment in developing fusion energy as a carbon-free alternative source. He’s a fusion alum and so am I–just out of college, I interned for the New England congressional delegation looking at the possibility of developing fusion–the question then, as now, was containing a plasma efficiently. It’s not an easy nut to crack.
But if we were to crack it, it would really open up significant technological solution strategies to dealing with anthropogenic climate change.
Jim

Obama’s scientific team

Last week, the President-elect filled out his scientific team. He had already named Nobel Laureate Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy. The new picks include Harvard’s John Holdren as Presidential Science Advisor, well known within the climate-change community but also include two outstanding molecular biologists to co-chair the PCAST (President’s Council on Science and Technology). Varmus, also a Nobel Laureate for his seminal work on oncogenes with Michael Bishop, was director of the NIH during my post-doctoral years when I trained in Bethesda; Lander is director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

These choices represent a qualitative shift towards depoliticizing science and science policy for the new Administration. And that’s a good thing. The challenges that we face, are too complex and daunting for ideologues.