John Holdren

Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; Co-Chair, President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology

Why He Matters

Holdren is a powerhouse in the world of science and public policy. As director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), he is the top adviser to President Barack Obama on science and technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to homeland security, energy and the environment. Holdren casts all of the above as priorities.

But some have criticized the scientist, claiming that he lets his political ideology sway his scientific convictions. Holdren is an outspoken advocate of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and believes the United States should sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. In a 2008 New York Times op-ed, Holdren called climate change skeptics "dangerous" members of a "denier fringe."

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (1996-2009); Harvard University Professor of Environ N/Amental Science and Public Policy (1996-2009); University of California, Berkeley Professor of Energy and Resources Emeritus (1996 to present)
Alma Mater: Ph.D. - Stanford University (1970), S.M. - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966), S.B. - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965)
Spouse: Cheri

DC Office: Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, 725 17th Street Room 5228, Washington, DC 20502; 202-456-7116
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Path to Power

Holdren boasts a long resume of degrees, academic posts, awards, around 300 articles and papers, and about 20 books or book-length reports. He studied aerospace engineering and plasma physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-where he earned his BS and MS-and Stanford University, where he received his doctorate in 1970. Later that year, he became a physicist in the Theory Group of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

From 1972 to 1973, Holdren was on leave from Lawrence Livermore, working as a senior research fellow in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Environmental Quality Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. There, he began wrestling with problems of environmental change, and how it relates to population, development, energy and technology. These issues would come to rank among his key research interests. He also cultivated an expertise in nuclear arms control and non-proliferation. By 1981, he was named one of the first winners of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, typically known as the MacArthur Genius Award. Holdren served as a member of the MacArthur Board of Trustees from 1991 to 2005.

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Berkeley and Harvard Academic

While working with numerous labs, institutes and fellowship programs, Holdren spent the bulk of his career ascending the academic ladder at the University of California, Berkeley, -and he remains the school's professor of energy and resources emeritus.

Holdren left Berkeley for Harvard University in 1996, where he has held various positions in environmental and public policy fields. Most notably, he was the Teresa and John Heinz professor of environmental policy at the Kennedy School of Government, and served as director of the program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

In his acceptance speech for the 2001 Heinz Award in Public Policy, Holdren said, "One might wonder from the array of interests of mine that have just been mentioned, whether I simply have a short attention span, but I do like to think that there is some method in this madness."

"I think that many, if not most, of the great problems of the human predicament - population, resources, environment, prosperity, security - are not separate problems, but are intimately interconnected. And I believe if they're not all addressed and solved together, they won't be solved at all."

Political Influence

While deeply immersed in the oft-enclosed life and labs of academia, Holdren also had a hand in helping craft real-world policy by advising politicians on science and technology.

Since 1973, he has been a member of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization of political and intellectual figures who convene periodically to discuss global cooperation and weapons control. Holdren was chair of the conferences from 1987 to 1997, during which time the group was awarded the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for working to diminish the role of nuclear arms in international politics.

In 1994, when President Bill Clinton formed the Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST), Holdren was selected as one of its members. In this capacity, he provided insight to the president on scientific research, technology,and education. Holdren chaired the first PCAST study, which led to a change in American policy on cooperating with Russia to protect nuclear materials. From the mid-to-late 1990s, Holdren continued to contribute revisions on policy ranging from weapons-grade plutonium management to energy development strategy to global warming.

Holdren also served as co-chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science-which is the world's largest general science community-and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Council on Foreign Relations and a host of other prestigious policy-building and scholarly groups.

The Issues

With an impressive resume in the sciences and experience in policy development, Holdren has cultivated celebrated expertise in both of these areas, even as some of his critics suggest he tends to conflate them.

University of Colorado environmental studies Professor Roger A. Pielke Jr.-author of "The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics"-cited Holdren among a list of "stealth issue advocates" who dismiss policy counter-arguments as unscientific. According to Pielke and others, Holdren uses science as a mandate for political influence, even when his policy might stem from his ideological viewpoint rather than the lab.

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When confronted about this during his confirmation hearing, Holdren explained that, "My position would be that in matters of public policy, policymakers should bet with the odds. You look at the range of scientific opinion. You look at the center of gravity of that scientific opinionif you're making policy, it is wise, in my judgment, to go with the opinion of the bulk of the part of the scientific community that has studied that particular question," adding that his own scientific interpretations are consistent with mainstream understanding.

Nuclear Weapons

A central aspect of Holdren's scientific and political focus has been nuclear disarmament. In his work with President Clinton and the Pugwash Conferences, Holdren aggressively pushed to reduce nuclear stockpiles around the globe and garner pledges against use of these weapons. In 2007, Holdren announced that since the number of nuclear stockpiles peaked in 1986 at 65,000 worldwide, that count has decreased by about two-thirds. He added, "I see no reason the world shouldn't aim for getting to zero in another two decades; that is, by about 2025."

Holdren is a strong advocate of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, an agreement signed by 180 countries banning nuclear explosions for any purpose. President Clinton was the first head of state to sign in the treaty in 1996-while Holdren was among his PCAST members-but the Senate voted against U.S. ratification and the U.S. is still not a party to it. The treaty has not been enforced effectively on a global scale, particularly after policies of the George W. Bush administration further curbed its relevance. In contrast, President Obama has sought Senate ratification of the treaty after seeking bilateral nuclear arms reduction agreement with countries like Russia.

Holdren has said he doesn't think the U.S. needs to develop any new arms as replacement weapons, which some have said would help gain the approval needed for Senate ratification of the test-ban treaty.

"The safety and effectiveness of the current nuclear stockpile could be maintained indefinitely without developing new warheads but by monitoring the situation and making modifications if necessary," Holdren said. "My personal view is that designing a nuclear warhead and deploying it would throw out a good part of the baby with the bathwater. It negates a substantial advantage to ratifying the test ban treaty because it would send a message to the world that the United States still thinks that it can and should design and deploy new warheads when circumstances require it."

Holdren has been outspoken on this issue, asserting the voice of science and technology as essential in the ongoing dialogue about nuclear weapons and national security. The OSTP has "a substantial role" in homeland security, Holdren has said, with about a quarter of his office working in that domain.

Population Control

In 1977, Holdren wrote a 1,000 page textbook with scientists Paul and Anne Ehrlich called Ecoscience. In it, the authors refer to a number of population-control policies, such as infusing sterilants in the water supply, that would prevent conception and other methods of curbing population growth such as compulsory abortion. The book also cites a group, Zero Population Growth (now called Population Connection), an organization founded by Paul Ehrlich in 1968 following the success of his book The Population Bomb.

When questioned about population control during his 2009 confirmation hearing, Holdren asserted that describing those measures did not indicate his endorsement of them. The book states that "Few today consider the situation in the United States serious enough to justify compulsion." Over 30 years later, Holdren testified that he doesn't find it "productive" to focus on America's "optimum population. I don't think any of us know what the right answer is," he said.

After conservatives began to raise the issue when Holdren was installed in the Obama White House, spokesperson Rick Weiss noted that Holdren "made clear that he did not believe in coercive means of population control" and the measures described in the book "are certainly not endorsed by this administration in any way."

Environmentalism

Having long-confronted environmental issues with passion, Holdren wrote an August 2008 op-ed for the New York Times calling climate change skeptics "dangerous" members of a "denier fringe." He considers climate change "the most demanding of all environmental challenges in terms of what will be required of science and technology in order to bring it under control," as he explained in his 2009 confirmation hearing, though he added that other concerns such as air-and-water quality, biodiversity, as well as ocean and forest conditions also merit government attention.

Holdren has emphasized the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He argues that "there is no longer any serious doubt" that human influences have been the main cause of climate change over the past few decades rather than natural factors. Holdren favors strategies to reduce fossil-fuel combustion in commercial and residential buildings, manufacturing and transportation, as well as on the supply side. He has said that, without improving technologies and cooperating on environmentally-friendly use, "the world is unlikely to achieve reductions as large as required."

Energy

"Energy is one of my big things. I'm going to pay a lot of attention to energy," Holdren said in April 2009.

Citing not only environmental concerns, but also economic and political risks, Holdren believes in pursuing alternatives to oil as an energy source and has listed a range of possible energy solutions that are more environmentally-sound.

These include: improved batteries for hybrid vehicles, new uses for solar power, better biofuel options, improved coal-gasification technologies to make electricity and hydrogen, as well as more efficient public-transit systems.

Space Programming

In his 2009 confirmation hearing, Holdren highlighted the importance of innovation in American space capabilities.

Though some may view space research as a luxury, Holdren remarked, there's more to it than that. "Space is crucial to our national defense; to civil as well as military communications and geo-positioning; to weather forecasting and storm monitoring; to observation and scientific study of the condition of our home planet's land, vegetation, oceans, and atmosphere; and to scientific study and exploration looking 'outward,' that is increasing our understanding of the physical universe and our place in it," he said.

Holdren said he aims to send a shuttle mission to complete the International Space Station by 2010, which President Obama has said he would consider.

The Network

Holdren reports to President Barack Obama, providing analysis and advice on science and technology issues in the United States and abroad. He also works closely with Dr. Harold Varmus and Dr. Eric Lander, who serve as co-Chairs of PCAST along with Holdren.

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