Prabhakar is Biden pick as adviser and science office head

Science 15 June 2022

In 1993, then United States president Bill Clinton picked a 34-year-old applied physicist named Arati Prabhakar to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Two decades later, former president Barack Obama chose her to lead the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. And this week, President Joe Biden is expected to name Prabhakar as his science adviser and nominate her as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), writes Jeffrey Mervis for Science.

The 63-year-old Prabhakar would succeed Eric Lander, who resigned on 7 February after admitting to bullying his staff and creating a hostile work environment during his nine months in office. Although she will need Senate confirmation to become OSTP director – which could take months – Prabhakar can immediately take the science adviser post.

That would give her a role in addressing several thorny science policy issues, including how best to position the United States to compete with China, implement workable rules for protecting US-funded academic research from theft, and reduce inequality in the research community.
Full report on the Science site

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