With the nomination earlier this week of Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy, the President-elect has in the process effectively demoted his yet-to-be-nominated science advisor. Chu is a physicist who has won the Nobel Prize and heads up the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Is it now even conceivable that Obama will nominate an energy expert or even a physicist to the position of science advisor?

Chu’s nomination provides support for an argument I made last year in Nature on the 50th anniversary of the science advisor position (PDF):

Hopes within the science community that the next president will somehow return the science adviser to a position of power are based on unrealistic expectations. The relationship between the next president and his or her science adviser will be as unique and idiosyncratic as those under the past ten presidents. Far more important for effective decision-making will be how the next administration manages and uses the vast infrastructure of expert advice that it will inherit.

After Chu’s nomination, it seems clear that Obama is prepared to get science advice from a variety of sources. And given Chu’s selection, I’d say get ready for the first life scientist as presidential science advisor.