Physicist Raymond Orbach, the director of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, was nominated by President Bush in December to become DOE’s first Undersecretary for Science. The position, created last August as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, elevates Orbach to the same level as the existing undersecretaries for defense, and for energy and the environment.
Orbach must be confirmed by the Senate and could not comment on his pending promotion, but Mildred Dresselhaus, Orbach’s predecessor at the Office of Science, said giving Orbach more power should be good for science. “I think an undersecretary has a better chance of solving problems and getting things done,” she said. “In physics research positions it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference who a person is because it is the ideas that prevail.”
But in government, rank is important, she said. “When I was in that position [Office...
