OSU professor Lubchenco to lead White House climate, environmental efforts

Jane Lubchenco served as NOAA administrator, science envoy for the ocean

CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Oregon State University Distinguished Professor Jane Lubchenco will lead climate and environmental science efforts in the White House as the new deputy director of climate and environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In the newly created role, Lubchenco will collaborate with Biden-Harris administration science and climate advisors to tackle one of the world’s most pressing problems.

“To me, science means hope and opportunity,” Lubchenco said. “I’m eager to work with the stellar team at the White House and across the federal government to craft evidence-based solutions to climate and environmental challenges – solutions that produce durable outcomes for people, the nation and the world.”

Lubchenco, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology at OSU, is one of the most highly cited marine ecologists in the world.

She previously worked with President Biden during the Barack Obama administration, where she spent four years as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and two years as the State Department’s first U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean.

Lubchenco is past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America and the International Council for Science.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and was a National Science Board member for 10 years. She also is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, or “genius grant.”

Lubchenco is on loan from Oregon State to the White House for the duration of the appointment.