Joe Biden Promotes ‘Science Advisor’ to US Cabinet-Level Position

“President-elect Joe Biden announced Friday that he has chosen a pioneer in mapping the human genome — the so-called ‘book of life’ — to be his chief science adviser,” reports the Associated Press, “and is elevating the top science job to a Cabinet position.”

Biden nominated Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, who was the lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome, as director of Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science. He is the first life scientist to have that job. His predecessor is a meteorologist.

Saying “science will always be at the forefront of my administration,” Biden said he is boosting the science advisor post to Cabinet level, a first in White House history…. “Elevating (the science adviser) role to member in the President’s Cabinet clearly signals the administration’s intent to involve scientific expertise in every policy discussion,” said Sudip Parikh, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.