Biden: Science will be at `forefront' of his administration

President-elect Joe Biden says "science will always be at the forefront of my administration,” and he is elevating the post of science adviser to Cabinet level, a White House first.

Biden, who planned to introduce his team Saturday, said the scientists “will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts and the truth.”

A pioneer in mapping the human genome — the “book of life” — is in line to be director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science. Eric Lander is the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and was the lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome. He would be the first life scientist to have that White House job. His predecessor is a meteorologist.

The president-elect also said on Friday he is retaining the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, who worked with Lander on the human genome project. Biden also is naming two prominent female scientists to co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Frances Arnold, a California Institute of Technology chemical engineer who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and MIT vice president for research and geophysics professor Maria Zuber will lead the outside science advisory council. Lander held that position during Obama administration.

Collins, in an email statement, called Lander “brilliant, visionary, exceptionally creative and highly effective in aspiring others.”

“I predict he will have a profound transformational effect on American science,” Collins said.

The job as director of science and technology policy requires Senate confirmation.

Science organizations were also quick to praise Lander and the promotion of the science post.

“Elevating...