Caltech Theoretical Physicist and Provost Moves to British Petroleum to become Chief Scientist. (July 9, 2004)

    British Petroleum (BP) seems to have taken a leaf out of Philips Electronics appointments primer of forty years ago and appointed a renowned theoretical physicist as its chief scientist. Whether or not they'll go the next step and make him a member of BP's management board, as did Philips, remain to be seen.

Steven Koonin received his B.S. in physics in 1972 from Caltech, and his PhD from MIT in 1975. He immediately accepted a faculty position at Caltech where he became  full professor in 1981. In 1995 he was appointed Provost. He resigned the provostship earlier this year.

Over the past few years BP has been partially reinventing itself to look toward the future by touting  renewable energy and hydrogen technologies. With Steven Koonin's appointment as chief scientist that interest appears to be strengthened. He recently told Science, "BP, and the world, need carefully thought-out, technically informed strategies to manage the looming issues of availability and continuity of energy supply, as well as environmental impacts." and Science adds, "he's pushing BP on a broad array of issues, including novel energy technologies, carbon sequestration, and the environment."

Says Thomas Tombrello, Chair, Division of Physics, Math and Astronomy at Caltech, referring to both BP and Koonin, "They are changing their spots."

All things considered it might be interesting were 2-days-per-week Australian Chief Scientist, Robin Batterham, (3-days-per-week Chief Technologist for mining giant Rio Tinto) to get together for a chat with Dr. Koonin.