[A2k] OBAMA CAMPAIGN REVEALS SCIENCE ADVISORS

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OBAMA CAMPAIGN REVEALS SCIENCE ADVISORS

SOURCE: Wired.com, USA

AUTHOR: Brandon Keim

URL:    http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/obama-campaign.html

DATE:   17.09.2008

OBAMA CAMPAIGN REVEALS SCIENCE ADVISORS

Barack Obama has established a small but well-regarded inner circle of
science advisors that includes a vocal critic of creationism, a Nobel
laureate who has championed open-access research, and another laureate who
used his prize money to defend academic freedom against the war on terror.
Though their influence on the policies of a prospective Obama administratio=
n
are unknown, they=E2=80=9Ave played a prominent role in establishing his sc=
ience
platform to date.

Obama announced his science platform earlier this month in response to
questions posed by ScienceDebate2008, a nonpartisan political education
group. In response to a Wired Science follow-up, the campaign identified
five people who helped draft Obama=E2=80=9As statement: Harold Varmus, a No=
bel
laureate and former head of the National Institutes of Health; Gilbert
Ommen, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement o=
f
Science; Peter Agre, a Nobel laureate and ardent critic of the Bush
administration; NASA researcher Donald Lamb; and Stanford University plant
biologist Sharon Long.

Republican candidate John McCain responded to the ScienceDebate2008
questions on Monday, but his campaign ignored multiple requests for the
identity of its science advisors.

On paper, both candidates have outlined a generally strong approach to
science. There are differences -- Obama emphasizes basic-research funding
and proposes moderately more ambitious greenhouse-gas cuts, while McCain
supports a new wave of nuclear power and would outlaw some embryonic stem
cell research -- but they are generally small. And at this pre-presidential
moment, neither platform may provide more than a hazy indication of what
each man would do as president.

Non-binding campaign rhetoric may be less important than the advisors they
assemble when you=E2=80=9Are trying to divine the realities of each candida=
te=E2=80=9As
presidency.

=E2=80=B0Neither of the candidates is a scientist to start with,=E2=80=B0 s=
aid Thomas
Murray, president of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics think
tank. =E2=80=B0We can presume that they=E2=80=9Are going to rely on experts=
 in science and
science policy. It is important to know who their advisors are.=E2=80=B0

In some ways, Obama=E2=80=9As team is a mix of contrasting approaches: Lamb=
 and Agre
are both academics, while Omenn is a director of the biotechnology company
Amgen and Long was a director at agricultural giant Monsanto. In other ways=
,
their expertise is narrow: four of the five advisors come from the life
sciences.

=E2=80=B0There are a lot of excellent scientists in major fields that we=E2=
=80=9Are going to
need research in,=E2=80=B0 said Martin Apple, president of the Council of S=
cience
Society Presidents, a confederation of scientific societies whose membershi=
p
spans more than one million scientists and teachers. =E2=80=B0The inner cir=
cle would
be much improved by increasing the range of disciplines.=E2=80=B0

Apple was confident that Obama would be able to assemble such a team. =E2=
=80=B0He=E2=80=9As
certainly the kind of person who tends to build larger consultation groups,=
=E2=80=B0
he said. =E2=80=B0All of [the advisors] have networks of people who would b=
e able to
put high-quality appointments together.

Harold Varmus: President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He
won a Nobel Prize in 1989 for breakthroughs in cancer genetics. Under
Clinton, he directed the National Institutes of Health; the agency=E2=80=9A=
s budget
doubled, but his legacy was tainted by his permitting NIH researchers to
take excessive payments from pharmaceutical companies. A champion of
open-access research, Varmus co-founded the Public Library of Science. He
chairs the scientific board of Grand Challenges in Global Health, launched
by the Gates Foundation and NIH to improve health in the developing world.
Varmus was an advisor to the now-defunct Campaign to Defend the
Constitution, launched to combat the political influence of the religious
right. His political contributions and a list of industry ties are
available.

Gilbert Omenn: Professor of internal medicine, human genetics and public
health at the University of Michigan. Former president of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science; during his tenure he denounced
anti-evolution education laws, and has been a vocal critic of creationism.
=E2=80=B0The logic that convinces us that evolution is a fact is the same l=
ogic we
use to say smoking is hazardous to your health or we have serious energy
policy issues because of global warming,=E2=80=B0 he told reporters this ye=
ar. =E2=80=B0I
would worry that a president who didn=E2=80=9At believe in the evolution ar=
guments
wouldn=E2=80=9At believe in those other arguments either. This is a way of =
leading
our country to ruin.=E2=80=B0 Omenn is a director of Amgen, a biotechnology=
 company,
and served in the Office of Science and Technology Policy under President
Carter. His campaign contributions and a list of industry ties are
available.

Peter Agre: Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. After
winning a Nobel Prize in 2003 for discovering proteins that move water
through cell membranes, he pledged to use the prize money to defend
scientific freedom from the restrictions of the war on terror. He has been
sharply critical of President Bush=E2=80=9As climate change policies. The B=
ush
administration has been a disaster for the environment, he said in 2004. If
we wait until there=E2=80=9A is unequivocal proof that this is the cause of=
 global
climate change, it will be too late. Agre helped found Scientists and
Engineers for America, a non-partisan science advocacy group. An advocate o=
f
increased government investment in science, he wants more scientists to run
for public office. He has appeared twice on The Colbert Report.

Don Lamb: A University of Chicago astrophysicist and expert in stellar
evolution, Lamb helped found the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has been
described as the most ambitious astronomical survey ever undertaken, and
recorded the most distant explosion ever. A Mission Scientist on NASA=E2=80=
=9As
High-Energy Transient Explorer, he has fought to maintain NASA=E2=80=9As re=
search
budget. Science at NASA is disappearing =CB=9C fast, he told the New York T=
imes
in 2006. Lamb has also argued against the privatization of commercial space
flight. Space exploration, he told the Times, particularly manned space
exploration, is just too expensive and risky to attract private enterprise,
especially venture capitalists.

Sharon Long: Recently stepped down as dean of Stanford University=E2=80=9As=
 School
of Humanities & Science to return to her research on the symbiosis of soil
bacteria with alfalfa. Long resigned last year from the Board of Directors
of Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology corporation. A former MacArthur
Fellow, Long is a member of the leadership council of the National Academy
of Sciences. She has contributed to the campaigns of both Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton.