In a move that signals the importance of science to the incoming administration, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden announced Friday a plan to make the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy a Cabinet-level agency.
The President-elect will nominate Eric S. Lander to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy, a post left vacant by President Trump for 18 months.
President-elect Joe Biden says "science will always be at the forefront of my administration," and he's elevating the post of science adviser to Cabinet level, a White House first.
President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday officially introduced members of his administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy, headlined by his nominee to lead the team, Eric Lander, who will serve as a presidential science adviser, a position Biden is elevating to be a member of the Cabinet for the first time. "In a way . this is the most exciting announcement that I've gotten to make in the entire Cabinet, raising this to a Cabinet-level position in one case," Biden said.Lander, who is considered a pioneer in the field of genomic science, is the president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and was an adviser in the Obama administration. He said Biden "knows that science and technology will be crucial" in meeting a moment that presents both "opportunities" and "challenges" that "are greater than ever before," adding that "no nation is better equipped to lead the search for solutions.&#x