WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden announced new members of his science team on Saturday, as well as his plan to elevate the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to a cabinet-level position for the first time, a move that aims to highlight its commitment to science.
“We will lead with science and truth,” said Biden in a speech introducing his new nominees in Delaware on Saturday. “We believe in both.”
Biden appointed Eric Lander to the position. Lander, who will need Senate confirmation, is a mathematician and geneticist who helped map the human genome and founded the Broad Institute, a biomedical research center known for its work on CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology.
Lander is also a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School and has served on President Barack Obama’s board of scientific advisers.
The decision to raise Lander to the cabinet level is a sharp break with President Donald Trump, who spent much of his term minimizing and questioning health and science experts. The position Lander will fill has been vacant for almost two years under Trump.
Biden also announced on Saturday that Dr. Alondra Nelson will serve as deputy director of science and society for the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Maria Zuber and Frances Arnold will serve as co-chairs of the President’s Council of Science and Technology Consultants.
Dr. Francis Collins will continue as Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, whose mother was a scientist, said she grew up with a fundamental belief in data collection and “evidence-based” decision-making.
“The science behind climate change is not a scam. The science behind the virus is not partisan. The same laws apply, the same evidence is true, regardless of whether you accept it or not,” said Harris.
Biden said his scientific team will focus on five main areas: the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, the climate crisis, the technological advances in the industry and the long-term health of science and technology in the country.
Biden, who lost a son to cancer, said that ending the disease will also be a priority for his government and would be a matter of signature for First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden.
“When I announced that I would not run for president in 2015, I said I had only one regret – that I would not be the president who presided over the end of cancer as we know it,” said Biden. “As president, I will do everything possible to make that happen.”
Ron Klain, Biden’s new White House chief of staff, also announced on Saturday that Biden would sign about a dozen executive orders on the day of the inauguration that will extend the existing pause in student loan payments, return to the Paris Agreement and revert to ban on travel to Muslims.
