The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

President-elect Barack Obama vowed to "restore America's place" at the forefront of scientific advancement and signaled a break with his predecessor as he named award-winning science and technology advisors to his White House team.

Indicating a change with outgoing President George W. Bush's policies on global warming, Obama named John Holdren, an award-winning environmental policy professor at Harvard University, to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chair the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. "Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation," Obama said in a weekly radio and video address in which he announced Holdren and others for key posts.

"It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology."

Obama 's comments were a clear reference to the Bush administration which has been accused of putting politics over science, including downplaying scientific findings on climate change and genetic research.

Obama called Holdren "one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change."

Holdren, 64, led the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international group of prominent scientists that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. He also won a MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in 1981 for his arms control work.

Holdren, a Washington insider, served as former president Bill Clinton's science and technology advisor in the 1990s.