Oklahoma's scientific assault on Washington continues.
Earlier today, Donald Trump nominated the generally well-regarded Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier – the Vice President for Research and School of Meteorology at OU – to be the new White House science adviser. I hope he likes flying coach.
Here are details via The Washington Post:
President Trump intends to nominate Kelvin Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather from the University of Oklahoma, as his top science and technology adviser at the White House, according to an administration official.
Droegemeier’s selection, if approved by the Senate, could soon end a roughly 19-month vacancy at the top of the Office of Science and Technology Policy — a critical arm of the White House that guides the president on such issues as self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, emerging medical research and climate change.
Droegemeier is a meteorologist by trade who has also served in government, including as Oklahoma’s secretary of science and technology, and he aided the federal National Science Board under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The Washington Post first reported him as a front-runner for the post in March.
The Lost Ogle would like to both congratulate and offer our condolences to Mr. Droegemeier. Being National Science Advisor sounds fun, especially if aliens arrive on your watch. Then again, I'm sure the decision to leave Oklahoma was difficult. Droegemeier has accomplished a lot while in Norman, and choosing to sacrifice your dignity and self-respect to work for a greedy con-man that will not listen to any of your suggestions had to be a tough call to make.
Obviously, the question here is whether a state that can't even afford to have a science fair should be sending Trump a national science advisor. And you have to admit that this photo from Kelvin's Facebook doesn't exude confidence that he's the right choice:
That's right! The head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy uses Gary England-approved "Steve Harvey TV" Facebook frames. How's that for technological expertise? His first act as Science Advisor will be to discover a way to unlock unlimited resources in Farmville.
All semi-serious joking aside, Droegemeier actually appears to be a respected scientist, bureaucrat and administrator. Basically, he's the opposite of Scott Pruitt and Jim Bridenstine – the two other Oklahoma Republicans who scored key science jobs in the Trump Administration.
Check out some of these remarks from Nature:
Droegemeier would be the first non-physicist to serve as White House science adviser since Congress established the OSTP in 1976. “I think he is a very solid choice,” says John Holdren, who led OSTP for eight years as Obama’s science adviser. “He is a respected senior scientist and he has experience in speaking science to power.”
An expert on extreme-weather events, Droegemeier has been the vice-president for research at the University of Oklahoma in Norman since 2009. Last year, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, appointed him as the state’s secretary of science and technology.
Yeah, he's a member of Mary Fallin's cabinet. That sticks out on are resume like a weather dong on radar. Maybe next week Trump will nominate Regular Jim Traber to lead to President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.
Then again, if I was a Russian agent turned President and needed to appoint a national science advisor, the first place I’d look would be Oklahoma. We have plenty of bright people when it comes to forecasting severe weather and extracting natural resources, and as the earthquake epidemic controversy taught us, many of them have no problem compromising their values or turning a blind eye to scientific research to advance socio-economic policies and political agendas. It should be an excellent fit.
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