did not have to twist my arm.
USBE: How do you describe the role you play for the president and the country?
Dr. Holdren: I schools than we’d be without them.
USBE: Why did you want this job? Dr. Holdren: I’ve been interested since my student days in how sci- ence and technology relate to human well-being. That is how the benefits of science and technology for society can be maximized and how the risks can be minimized. And that involves thinking about the roles of science and technology in the economy, in public health, the energy system, in environmental protection and man- agement, in national and homeland security. And on the institutional side it involves the educational system, government and private sector sup- port for research and development, and for technology assessment, it involves public policies that favor en- trepreneurship and innovation while still managing to protect public goods like the environment. And basically there is no place that a scientist or engineer interested in that broad set of issues can get as much done that matters than working directly for the president of the United States as his science and technology advisor. I’ve been interested in that whole set of issues my whole adult life, so I think I am in the best spot I can possibly be in right now.
USBE: So I take it President Obama did not have to work hard to convince you to take the job?
Dr. Holdren: He
www.blackengineer.com
have two jobs really. One is to make sure that the president has the understanding he needs of the science and technology aspects of the policy issues on his plate. Everything from the role of science, technology and innova- tion in job creation to the science and tech- nology of nuclear arms control and non-prolif- eration. And the other job is to help support and coordinate from the White House the
science and technology projects and programs that take place all across the departments and agencies of the fed- eral government. And to indeed work with the Congress and with state and local government and with the aca- demic, private and non–profit sectors and with other countries to cooperate in pursuit of the president’s priorities for using science and technology to improve people’s lives. In both jobs, I’m supported by the roughly 70-per- son White House office of Science and Technology Policy, which I direct, and by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which I co-chair.
USBE: Do you have any sense of how that differs from the role the office played under President Bush?
Dr. Holdren: I would say in principle the responsibilities were same, but in practice the office under President Bush had a more challenging time carrying those responsibilities out because President Bush was much less interested in and knowledgeable about what science and technology have to contribute than President Obama is. I do admire [the former di- rector] Dr. [John H.] Marburger for all that he managed to get done despite that handicap.
USBE: Was it a lack of understand- ing or an overabundance of politics
that was a factor then?
Dr. Holdren: I have already said that it was all too clear that President Bush and perhaps those closest to him didn’t seem to have much interest in what science and technology had to offer. And so other factors obviously played a larger role. My view is that understanding the relevant science and technology is hugely important to making good policy decisions. But those science and technology understandings are usually never all that have to be taken into account by policy makers. Scientists and tech- nologists can’t expect that the science and technology facts as they see them are going to dominate decision- making. It is important that informa- tion be available to policy makers. But it is the job of policy makers to take into account people’s values and their preferences about alternative policy approaches that might be used to ad- dress a particular issue. So one can’t really complain that in Washington, D.C. politics are involved. Washing- ton, D.C. is about politics. What one wants is to be sure of is that science and technology are at the table and that the relevant insights from science and technology are taken into account when those decisions are made.
USBE: How frustrating is it when you hear voices on Capitol Hill say, for example, that climate change is a fiction when there is such a scientific consensus on the issue?
Dr. Holdren: It is frustrating. But what that says is that we have to do a better job communicating and educat- ing. This is really about education. Obviously, the science and technology community has not done as good a job as it might have in educating the public and policy makers about any number of important policy issues. We’re just going to have to keep working on it.
USBE: Is the American education system as currently constituted able to meet the nation’s science and technology manpower needs going forward?
Dr. Holdren: We do need to do better. Too many of our children, particularly too many of our girls and minorities, are steering away from sci- ence and engineering and we’re trying to address that. The president has set two overarching goals relevant to sci-
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