Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Steven Chu to join Obama administration

President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be his energy secretary. Chu is also a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, and, according to his official lab bio, “one of the nation’s foremost and outspoken advocates for scientific solutions to the twin problems of global warming and the need for carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy.”

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama said Chu’s appointment shows that “my administration will value science. We will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that facts demand bold action.”

Following Chu’s nomination, the San Francisco Chronicle opined,  “What a concept: a scientist given a leading role on climate change and alternative energy. In place of eight years of denial and avoidance, President-elect Barack Obama is going in a new direction. … Chu was picked to run a Cabinet position that will be ground zero for climate change plans, long-range science, and alternatives to the gas pump.” 

Chu has run the Berkeley lab since 2004. The lab is the oldest of the Energy Department’s national laboratories, with 4,000 employees and a $650 million budget.  As energy secretary, Chu would head a department with 14,000 employees and 193,000 contract workers with a $25 billion budget.

Chu is the second notable UC Berkeley faculty member to be chosen to join Obama’s administration.  As we reported in D-Blog last month, Cristina Romer, a Cal economics professor and expert on the Great Depression, was selected to head Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors.

Once Obama takes office in January, Romer will provide the new president with objective economic analysis and advice on developing and implementing domestic and international economic policies. Romer advised Obama on economic policy issues during his presidential campaign.
 

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