Dr. Koonin Goes to Washington

President Barack Obama has nominated Steven E. Koonin (BS ’72), former Caltech provost and professor of theoretical physics, as Under Secretary for Science in the Department of Energy. If confirmed by the Senate, Koonin would oversee the Department of Energy’s basic-science portfolio, which includes many of the national laboratories, as well as provide technical advice and coordination across the Department’s energy and national-security activities.

Koonin took a leave of absence from Caltech in 2004 to serve as chief scientist for the British energy giant BP, where he guided the company’s long-range technology strategy, particularly in alternative and renewable energy sources. He is also a longtime member and past chair of JASON, a semisecret group of advisors to the U.S. government on technical issues associated with national security. He is a member of the Council for Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and has served on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense and its various national laboratories.

Koonin’s research interests include theoretical and computational physics, nuclear astrophysics, and global environmental science. He currently holds a position as a visiting associate in physics. —DW-H

. . . And Dr. Zewail Gives Advice

Obama has also named Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail, the Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics, to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST, which will meet every two months, includes three Nobel laureates, two university presidents, four MacArthur “genius” fellows, and 14 members of the National Academy of Sciences or its Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the speech announcing the appointments, Obama said, “I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation . . . I intend to work with them closely.” PCAST’s bailiwick includes energy, education, health, climate change, the environment, security, and the economy.

Zewail won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating the new field of femtochemistry. A femtosecond is 10-15 seconds—one quadrillionth of a second, the timescale on which atomic bonds break and form. His lab is now developing a technique called four-dimensional microscopy to track atoms in time and space simultaneously to try to understand complex biological reactions.

Zewail serves on many national and international boards, and is involved in promoting science and education in the developing world. —AB