Bush picks science advisor.

Bush picks science adviser

President Bush last week nominated nuclear physicist D. Allan Bromley of Yale University as his science adviser, an appointment that also would make Bromley head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Bromley carried out pioneering studies on the structure and dynamics of nuclei and is considered the father of modern heavy-ion science. He has been a leading science spokesman as president of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.

"I think it's an outstanding choice," says Richard S. Nicholson, the new executive officer of the AAAS in Washington, D.C. "He's highly accomplished both as a scientist and in science policy [and] will have the respect of everybody."

"He's a good, solid mainstream adviser in an administration that is trying to be middle of the road," says Philip Speser, president of Foresight Science and Technology Inc., a research firm in Washington, D.C. Bush has elevated the science advisory post to the same level as the national security adviser. This means the science adviser will report directly to the President, Bromley says.

The science adviser should interject science and technology into areas that may relate only indirectly to science, such as international relations, Bromley says. "Science and technology sometimes provide an opportunity to build communication channels [between nations] ... because scientists really do share a common language," he says.

Bromley's appointment requires Senate confirmation, but a vote on his nomination probably won't occur until at least the end of May, says an aide to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.