- It’s an honor, of course, but it's more the responsibility to serve right now, Eric Lander commented on the appointment as the scientific advisor of the US president.
- I can't think of a time when the problems and challenges facing the country - environment and energy, health care, education - had more to do with science and technology than they do today, he added to MIT Tech Talk, the official newspaper of MIT and Harvard where Eric Lander works a professor of biology.
Environmental issues and medical science
The members of Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology are, in addition to Eric Lander, the physicist John Holdren, who focuses on environmental issues, the marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, a climate expert, and cancer researcher and Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus.
Considerable change
- It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda, Obama said.
By choosing these four top scientists Obama signals that there will be considerable changes in the political steering of the research compared to the attitude of the former Bush administration, not least when it comes to climate politics and stem cell research.
Uncomfortable scientific truths
- Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient — especially when it’s inconvenient. I could not have a better team to guide me in this work, Obama said.
- I know Eric Lander will be a powerful voice in my administration as we seek to find the causes and cures of our most devastating diseases, Obama said in his radio address.
- It is exciting to have an administration that deeply understands the importance of science and scientific thinking, Eric Lander added.
Extensive resume
Eric Lander is a professor of biology at MIT and Harvard and head of the Broad Institute. Despite being just over 50 years old he has an extensive resume. Among other things, he was one of the key scientists behind the mapping of the human genome, the HUGO project. When the project was presented in the scientific journal Nature in 2001, Eric Lander was the first of more than 250 names on the list of authors.
One of the top scientists of the world
Eric Lander has collaborated with scientists at LUDC for many years. This has, among other things resulted in an extensive mapping of genes that increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which was presented in the journal Science in the spring of 2007.
- He is one of the leading scientists in his field, says Leif Groop, professor of diabetes and endocrinology at Lund University and coordinator of LUDC.