John P. Holdren is the current Science and Technology consultant to current United States President Barack Obama. He is as well known for being the co-chair of the PCAST (the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Between 1994 and 2001, John Holdren had been a science advisor of former US President Clinton. Last March 19, it was confirmed that he was going to be the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Prior to being an advisor to the president, he was the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He used to be the director of the Woods Hole Research Center and the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the University’s Belfer Center for Science and Internal Affairs.

An author, John Holdren has written more than 200 articles and papers, also co-authoring and co-editing about 20 books as well as book-length reports, including Policy for Energy Technology Innovation. He also co-authored several books, including Acting in Time on Energy Policy, which he did with Laura Diaz Anadon just this year.

Moreover, he was an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley for over 20 years. He also taught for 13 years at Harvard. The focus of his work was on the causes and effects of global climate change, energy policies and technologies, how to reduce the risks of nuclear materials and weapons, and science and technology policy.

Born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania and raised in San Mateo, California, John Holdren was taught plasma physics, aeronautics and astronautics and gained his bachelor degree in 1965 from MIT and his PhD in 1970 from the University of Stanford.

At present, he resides in Falmouth, Massachusetts with his biologist wife Cheryl E. Holdren. The Holdren couple has two children and five grandkids.