US Department of Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, About to Get Some Help. (April 25, 2009)

Steven Koonin "appears headed for confirmation as undersecretary for science after an uneventful hearing, poorly attended by the

William Brinkman

 Senate energy committee". So reports NatureNews.

Dr Koonin received his doctorate in theoretical physics. In 1975, he joined the faculty of Caltech, became a full professor in 1981, and served as Provost from 1995 to 2004 when he took the position of chief scientist for BP.

As undersecretary for science Dr Koonin would be Professor Chu's chief scientific adviser and also would oversee basic research performed at the ten national laboratories within the DOE's Office of Science.

While at BP, he struck a deal with Proferssor Chu, then head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, to establish a joint Energy Biosciences Institute. BP agreed to provide US$500 million over ten years to the Institute.

Kristina Johnson

Dr Koonin in turn is expected to be assisted by William Brinkman who retired in 2001 as head of research for Bell Labs (during which time Steven Chu did the atom-cooling research that won him the Nobel Physics prize) and joined the Princeton University physics department.  President Obama has nominated Professor Brinkman, to work for Koonin as director of the Office of Science.

NatureNews, also reports that Dr Koonin: "...will also work with Kristina Johnson, an electrical engineer and former provost of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She is nominated as undersecretary for energy, responsible for applying energy technologies. She too was at the 23 April Senate committee's confirmation hearing.