Former OSTP Chief Says Current White House Uninterested in Science

John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barrack Obama, is questioning the direction of the office under President Donald Trump. Holdren emailed his response Tuesday to our questions from last week (see 1801180055). “Most of what OSTP has been doing, as best I can tell, has been about a few areas in technology with wholly obvious connections to the economy,” Holdren said. He listed spectrum, artificial intelligence, drones and self-driving cars. Holdren noted no positions requiring Senate confirmation are filled. “There are a few scientists among the 40-45 staff there now, but not many, and they’re not poking their heads above the trenches,” he said. “There has been little if any indication that anybody now at OSTP has been in a position to make the case to [Office of Management and Budget] or the West Wing that science is the foundation on which technological advances are built, as well as a major source of understanding about what technological advances are needed, for what purposes.” If OSTP hadn't been created by statute, the Harvard Kennedy School professor guesses Trump would “rename it the Office of Technology Policy.”