The Most Important Assistant in American Science

John Marburger has an impressive title: science adviser to the president and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. But his predecessors had a slightly different title: assistant to the president, the highest rank of staffers within the Executive Office of the President. Much has been made of President Bush’s decision to appoint a science adviser to a diminished post, but the move resonated with the administration’s repeated maneuvers to downplay, disregard, or launch all-out assaults on science over the course of the past eight years.

But on the eve of a new administration, it’s time to look forward and think about the scientists who will advise the next president. The National Academies have just weighed in with their take on the issue, offering a report detailing the most critical presidential science appointments in the executive branch and ways to streamline the process of getting new hires into their posts. Their first recommendation, however, is to hire the top science adviser at the level of assistant to the president:

White House leadership in science and technology requires three steps. Immediately after the election, the president-elect should identify his candidate for the position of Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST). This individual will provide advice, identify and recruit other science and technology presidential appointees. After inauguration, the President should promptly both appoint this person as APST and nominate him or her as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The director position should be cabinet-level, with an office in the Old Executive Office Building.

Many of the most pressing matters of the new administration will require forthright scientific advice, and only through an assistant to the president who can participate in cabinet-level discussions and coordinate with other senior staffers in economic, domestic, national security, and energy policy will the next commander in chief get the advice that he needs. NAS is not the first group to argue that the science adviser post must be elevated back to the assistant level.

Moreover, NAS recommends that the president not dawdle on the matter of the thousands of other appointments across the administration. That means getting to work well in advance. Like today.

Who do readers think the next president should appoint as the top science adviser?

Tags: economics, Energy, ostp

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