… is the Nobel laureate physicist Steven Chu, who currently heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 
Who is this guy? From his bio:
Chu, an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change, has guided Berkeley Lab on a new mission to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy….
At the heart of each institute and proposal is the belief that biological engineering of non-food plants, combined with nanoscience, can create liquid fuels and electricity from sunlight.
This is deeply good news for anyone who cares about finally getting beyond petroleum. Properly engineered biofuels are the best hope, and this is the best guy on the planet to make them happen.
Boy, Nobel prizes sure aren’t what they used to be…hey wait, YES they fuckin are! This is great news!! Soooo amazing. I hope.
He’s also for a lot of other good things too!
Think Progress has a write-up and video of him giving a talk about energy here:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/10/chu-…
zomg, a smart dude who is genuinely interested in changing our energy use. He’s the REAL thing!
That doesn’t translate to “biofuels”..traditionally know as oily substitutes…for oil.
There has also been significant work with Hydrogen producing algae. And much of it stems from nanoscience advances.
Chu indeed looks like a great pick.
Not so much convinced about bio-fuels. If farming resources are diverted from growing food for people into growing food for cars, we’re fucked.
Biofuels seem like they’d be unable to produce much energy without mucking up Biodome 1. As Golob’s last link says, we’re using 100s of years’ worth of solar energy per year via petroleum.
I think the future’s gotta be solar space farms and microwaves, somehow (!) moving to extraorbital collection.
Japan:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=farm…
The geeks shall inherit the earth. Chu’s an impressive guy. I’m really pleased with this pick.
Whoa! an actual scientist in the cabinet? A nobel laureate physicist??? Not some crony hack????? I love Obama more every day
I’ll put up a post on biofuels vs biofuels later. In this post, I’m using the term in a broader sense, of any energy source derived from living things.
Chu’s approach does not use food crops, and thus might actually work–unlike the ethanol and biodiesel fads.
What @7 said…. I am slight giddy with this pick…
But, the position that I’m most interested in is Education Secretary. I was really happy with the fact that not only did I love Obama, but he was a Democrat who was pro-charter schools and pro-merit pay for teachers. I think his pick for Secretary will send a message whether he is serious about going against the traditional Democratic stances on these topics once in office – there seem to be a few reformers on his list and a few more traditional candidates, so we’ll see.
“nanoscience” Really? Tiny little scientists?
@10: Nah, it’s more like “nano nano” science.
I do fall more and more in love with Obama everyday. It’s nice to be proud of our leader.
And it’s nice to see smart people in charge again.
I met Steven Chu when I used to work for Reviews Of Modern Physics and I think he is a great pick. I think he brings a lot of fresh ideas to a departemnt that has been in the pockets of Big Oil for far too long.
Fuckin’ A! Biodiesel — and ethanol, bitches — from algae.
Go here to see what I’m talking about. That’s why I bought a diesel truck.
Yeah, algae and other sources are promising. Hell, they found diesel producing fungus, recently. A mycologist friend of mine is excited about that.
I think we should just be happy that there is a seemingly intelligent science driven person in this position, rather than a career politician or lobbyist.
I like scientists.
Berkeley has a long history of promoting nuclear energy and weapons. Most of the DOE’s budget currently goes to research on nuclear power. He sounds good. But I want to know more about whether he promotes a technology that produces toxic waste with a 10,000 year half life, about his views on Yucca Mountain, about whether he will stand up to Obama on “clean coal”, before getting too excited.
17
You will find it pretty hard to find a physics lab with a long history like LBL in the U.S. that didn’t have a hand in creating nuclear weapons. Most of the labs were created as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s.
But just because Steven Chu is a physicist working at LBL does not mean he worked on weapons. Nuclear science and its use in creating weapons is only one small part of the field of physics.
What’s it gonna take to get these bigwigs out of pleated pants?
Wait, that came out out wrong.
Pleated pants look terrible, especially on a skinny guy.
A bonfide scientist! Already a vast change from the Bush religious voodoo years.
Since he’s a pre-eminent scientist, the odds are also high he is an atheist or at least agnostic. http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/news…
Has any previous cabinet secretary been “out” on this front?
@18: “Nuclear science and its use in creating weapons is only one small part of the field of physics.”
But it is a big part of what the DOE is about. Will Chu challenge that? Will he challenge Obama on “clean coal”? I’m not saying I know the answer. I’m saying the question is worth asking. Being a good scientist doesn’t necessarily make one a good politician, just as being a good professor doesn’t necessarily make one a good university president.