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Ousting of Biden’s science advisor shows that sensitivity trumps expertise
- Bostonian 5y ago"The White House is now searching for a new science advisor to replace Lander and resume the task of launching Biden’s anti-cancer moonshot. The top two candidates, according to Politico, are—you guessed it—women. Alondra Nelson is a sociologist specializing in racial issues. This kind of expertise, unfortunately, gives her zero qualification to understand cancer immunogenetics, select genomic approaches with clinical promise, or indeed to deal with any other of the many technical issues that cross the science advisor’s desk."
- quantified 5y agoThe characterization of the letter published about him in Scientific American [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eric-lander-is-not-the-ideal-choice-for-presidential-science-adviser/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eric-lander-is-no...] seems fair. The political face needs to be from a sufficiently marginalized group to withstand scrutiny. If there’s enough available actual talent to see these efforts through and deliver results, it will be a win for the diversity community. If there are no breakthroughs, or the effort sputters to get going, it will not help that cause. As the offspring of a woman scientist, I look at the 500 group with a bit of skepticism. Science itself seems in the background. Their page that is to highlight their cohort’s projects only shows faces, which are the least interesting aspect of pretty much any scientist.