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WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday announced the new members of his science team as well as his plan to elevate the director of the Bureau of Science and Technology Policy to a Cabinet-level post for the first time, a move aimed at emphasize its commitment to science.
“We’re going to lead with science and truth,” Biden said during a speech introducing his new Delaware appointees on Saturday. “We believe in both.”
Biden appointed Eric Lander to the post. Lander, who will require Senate confirmation, is a mathematician and geneticist who helped map the human genome and founded the Broad Institute, a biomedical research center known for his 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 previously served on President Barack Obama’s board of science advisers.
The move to elevate Lander to Cabinet level is a clean break with President Donald Trump who has spent much of his tenure downplaying and questioning health and science experts. The Lander post will fill a vacant seat for nearly two years under Trump.
Biden also announced on Saturday that Dr Alondra Nelson will serve as Deputy Director for Science and Society in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and that Maria Zuber and Frances Arnold will serve as co-chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. technology.
Dr Francis Collins will remain director of the National Institutes of Health.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, whose mother was a scientist, said she grew up with a core belief in collecting data and making “evidence-based” decisions.
“The science behind climate change is not a hoax. The science behind the virus is not partisan. The same laws apply, the same evidence is true whether you accept it or not,” Harris said.
Biden said his science team will focus on five key areas: the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, the climate crisis, industry technological advancements, and the long-term health of science and technology in the country. .
Biden, who lost a son to cancer, said ending the disease would also be a top priority for his administration and it would be a signing issue for new first lady Dr Jill Biden.
“When I announced that I would not run for president in 2015, I said that I had only one regret – that I would not be the president who presided over the end of cancer such as we know him, ”Biden said. “As president, I will do whatever we can to make it 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 inauguration day that will extend the existing hiatus on student loan payments, will join the Accord. Paris and overturn the Muslim travel ban.
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