He's actually spent a fair amount of time on the Hill advocating for the NIH public access policy[0], which lets taxpayers access the research they've paid for.

He's actually spent a fair amount of time on the Hill advocating for the NIH public access policy[0], which lets taxpayers access the research they've paid for. More broadly, though, science as practiced today consists of significant amounts of synthesizing diverse data of varying qualities and advocating for projects in the face of hostile audiences. Mike has been hugely successful in a cutthroat field, all while sticking to core principles of data access that others have argued would torpedo his tenure, his grants, and the careers of his trainees (none of which have been demonstrably true). Those sound like extremely valuable skills for a public servant. conflict statement: I did my PhD in the Eisen Lab and graduated in 2015. You can bet your butt I'll be voting for him in 2018. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIH_Public_Access_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIH_Public_Access_Policy