Steven Chu to head Department of Energy

Berkeley MCB professor, LBNL Director and Nobel Laureate, was named by Obama to head the Department of Energy. I think this is great. Although it was not intended to be, I see this appointment as repudiation of the know-nothing, anti-intellectual, cronism of the Bush administration. During his tenure at LBNL, Chu has changed the direction of LBNL initiating the Helios project and bringing the labs focus of funneling sunlight into our gas tanks. He was also instrumental in founding the Energy Bioscience Institute, a "collaboration" between Berkeley and BP (personally not a big fan of public private collaborations, but that is another post). Chu's tenure has not been without controversy (he came up during the UC salary controversy), but as a visionary with scientific experience, I think he is top notch.