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John Holdren

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John Holdren
187x
Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy


Term Start March 19, 2009
Born1944
Nationality United States
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University
Known forPast President and Chairman of the AAAS, a science
advisor to two U.S. Presidents, work on climate change
and nuclear arms control
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, Aerospace Engineering, Environmental Science
InstitutionsHarvard University University of California, Berkley

John P. Holdren is advisor to President Barack Obama for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)[1]

Holdren was previously the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center.[2]

Biography

Holdren trained in aeronautics, astronautics and plasma physics and earned a bachelor's degree from MIT in 1965 and a PhD from Stanford University in 1970. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley for more than two decades. His work has focused on the causes and consequences of global environmental change, energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and science and technology policy.[1][2]

Holdren served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from February 2006 to February 2007, and as board Chairman from February 2007 until February 2008.[2] He was the founding chair of the advisory board for Innovations, a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges published by MIT Press, and has written and lectured extensively on the topic of climate change. He was confirmed as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy on March 19, 2009 by a unanimous vote in the Senate. [3][4] [5] He testified to the nomination committee that he does not believe that government should have a role in determining optimal population size [6] and that he has never endorsed forced sterilization.[7][8][7][9]

Recent publications

Holdren is the author of over 200 articles and papers, and he has co-authored and co-edited some 20 books and book-length reports, including:[10]

  • Science in the White House. Science 324.5927 (May 2009): 567.[11].
  • Policy for Energy Technology Innovation. Acting in Time on Energy Policy, (with Laura Diaz Anadon), Brookings Institution Press, 2009, 89-127.
  • The Future of Climate Change Policy: The U.S.'s Last Chance to Lead. Scientific American 2008 Earth 3.0 Supplement. October 13, 2008, 20-21.[12]
  • Convincing the Climate Change Skeptics. Boston Globe, August 4, 2008.[13]
  • Meeting the Climate-Change Challenge. The John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C., January 17, 2008.[14]
  • Global Climatic Disruption: Risks and Opportunities. Presentation at Investor Summit on Climate Risk, New York, February 14, 2008.[15]
  • Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy To Meet America's Energy Challenges. Presentation at the National Academies 2008 Energy Summit, Washington, D.C., March 14, 2008. [16]

Early publications

Overpopulation was an early concern and interest. In a 1969 article, Holdren and co-author Paul R. Ehrlich argued that, "if the population control measures are not initiated immediately, and effectively, all the technology man can bring to bear will not fend off the misery to come."[17] In 1973 Holdren encouraged a decline in fertility to well below replacement in the United States, because "210 million now is too many and 280 million in 2040 is likely to be much too many."[18] In 1977, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and Holdren co-authored the textbook Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment; they discussed the possible role of a wide variety of solutions to overpopulation, from voluntary family planning to enforced population controls,including forced sterilization for women after they gave birth to a designated number of children, and recommended "the use of milder methods of influencing family size preferences" such as access to birth control and abortion.[19][7]

Other early publications include Energy (1971), Human Ecology (1973), Energy in Transition (1980), Earth and the Human Future (1986), Strategic Defences and the Future of the Arms Race (1987), Building Global Security Through Cooperation (1990), and Conversion of Military R&D (1998).[10]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Profile: John Holdren "Why He Matters","WhoRunsGov.com", A Washington Post Co Pub. accessed July 24, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c News release. "Obama to Name John P. Holdren as Science Adviser"AAAS, December 18, 2008.
  3. ^ Staff and news service reports. "Obama's science adviser starts job", "msnbc.com", March 20, 2009.
  4. ^ Press Release.holdren_confirmation_release_3-20-09.pdf "Holdren confirmed as Director of OSTP"Office of Science and Technology Policy, March 20, 2009.
  5. ^ Koenig, Robert. "President Barack Obama's Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Faces Limited Criticism at Confirmation Hearings",Seed Magazine, February 13, 2009.
  6. ^ Video.[1]Senate Confirmation Hearing, February 12,2009.
  7. ^ a b c Mooney, Chris."Hold off on Holdren (again)", "Science Progress", July 2009. Cite error: The named reference "holdoff" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. ^ Pratt, Andrew Plemmons "Right-wing Attacks on Science Adviser Continue", Science Progress, July 21, 2009
  9. ^ Goldberg, Michelle (2009-07-21). "Holdren's Controversial Population Control Past". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2009-07-30.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  10. ^ a b "John P. Holdren's CV", The Woods Hole Research Center
  11. ^ Holdren, John P. "Science in the White House",Science Magazine", Abstract, May 2009.
  12. ^ Holdren, John P."The Future of Climate Change Policy: The U.S.'s Last Chance to Lead""The Scientific American"
  13. ^ Holdren, John P. "Convincing the Climate Change Skeptics", the Boston Globe, August 4, 2008.
  14. ^ Holdren, John P. "Meeting the Climate-Change Challenge."The John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C., January 17, 2008.
  15. ^ Holdren, John P."Global Climatic Disruption: Risks and Opportunities",Presentation at Investor Summit on Climate Risk, New York, February 14, 2008.
  16. ^ "Faculty page-Harvard University".
  17. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R.; Holdren, John P. (1969), "Population and Panaceas A Technological Perspective", Bioscience, 19: 1065–1071
  18. ^ Holdren, John P. (1973), "Population and the American Predicament: The Case Against Complacency", Daedalus, The No-Growth Society: 31–44
  19. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (1977). Ecoscience: population, resources, environment. San Francisco: Freeman. ISBN 0716705672. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)


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