61 US Nobel Science Laureates Endorse Senator Barack Obama for US President. (September 26, 2008)

The endorsement yesterday of Senator Barack Obama to become the next president of the United States by 61 Nobel Laureates in and open letter "to the American people opens:

This year's presidential election is among the most significant in our nation's history. The country urgently needs a visionary leader who can ensure the future of our traditional strengths in science and technology and who can harness those strengths to address many of our greatest problems: energy, disease, climate change, security, and economic competitiveness.

We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.

They go on to condemn the administration of George W Bush in the strongest terms:

The government's scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.

The sixty-one signatories are listed below. They make it clear that they are signing as individuals and their views are not necessarily those of their employers. Their Nobel prizes were awarded over a 45-year period, 1962 through 2007.

Harold Varmus, 1989 Nobel Laureate in medicine or physiology, president of Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the NIH, and an adviser to the Obama campaign, said that Senator Obama's pledge of "sustained and predictable increases" in funding basic research is a major reason for what he characterized as "widespread support" in the scientific community for the Democratic candidate.

Senator Obama has also made commitments which if usefully honoured will have far-reaching consequences:

• He plans to restore the presidential science advisor to a position that reports directly to the president.

• Promises to appoint the presidential science adviser early in his administration and to give that person power to shape other appointments and White House policies.

• He intends to implement a "fast track" system to permit international students who study at US universities to begin working in the United States without having to return home first.

• He will strengthen the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's hub for cutting-edge research.

• He pledges to encourage innovation, improve education, and restore scientific integrity" to federal agencies, and he

• will "double the budgets of key science agencies" over the next decade.

From an immediate Australian perspective the role and positioning of the presidential science advisor is of interest in the light of the expected immanent appointment of Australia's next chief scientist.