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WASHINGTON : US president-elect Barack Obama on Saturday signaled climate change and genetic research will be among his top priorities when he takes office as he named four key members of his administration.
"It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology," said Obama in a weekly radio address.
Leading his list of nominees is John Holdren, who would become director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chairman of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The professor of environmental policy at Harvard University led the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization of prominent scientists that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.
Holdren is no stranger to Washington, having served as President Bill Clinton's science and technology adviser in the 1990s.
Obama called Holdren "one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change".
Underscoring the importance of genetic research, the president-elect also named Eric Lander and Harold Varmus as co-chairmen of the council of advisors alongside Holdren.
Lander is founding director of the Broad Institute, which played a leading role in the Human Genome Project which in 2003 succeeded in mapping the location of about 20,500 genes on the 23 pairs of human chromosomes.
Lander and his colleagues are using these findings to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying the basis of human disease, a field that could hold the key to curing many incurable diseases, Obama aides said.
Varmus, a co-recipient of a 1989 Nobel prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, has been serving as president and chief executive of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York since January 2000.
Obama expressed the confidence that together the two men will "remake" the group "into a vigorous external advisory council" that will shape his thinking on scientific aspects of his policies.
The nominees also include Jane Lubchenco, an environmental scientist and marine ecologist from Oregon, who will head up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency that monitors global weather patterns and issues major storm forecasts.
The president-elect made no direct reference to a controversial 2001 decision by President George W. Bush to limit federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, despite pleas by many scientists who believe it could offer promise in fighting degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The decision had been made under pressure from religious conservative groups that argued such research could violate the sanctity of human life.
Nor did Obama openly comment on earlier attempts by some Bush administration officials to downplay the importance of global warming.
But in what seemed to be a clear reference to these controversies, he warned of the danger of twisting facts to suit political purposes.
"It's about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology," the future president noted. "It's about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it's inconvenient -- especially when it's inconvenient."
The nominations came as Obama, who will move into the White House on January 20, virtually completed the formation of his cabinet.
On Friday, he tapped Democratic Representative Hilda Solis of California as labor secretary and former Republican Congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary.
The president-elect leaves on Saturday for Hawaii where he will spend the Christmas holidays with family and friends but will continue to do transition work, his office said.
- AFP/vm
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