Dr. Holt earned his PhD in Physics from New York University and served on the faculty of Swarthmore College teaching courses in both physics and public policy before becoming the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, one of the largest alternative energy research facilities in the country. Prior to being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 to represent New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, Dr. Holt worked on Capitol Hill as an APS Congressional Science Fellow (1982-83) and at the US State Department as a Nuclear Arms-Control Expert. While serving as one of only three research physicists in Congress, Dr. Holt served on the Committee on Natural Resources, the Committee on Education and Labor, the Committee on the Budget, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and he chaired the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel. His advocacy for federal funding of scientific research helped secure over $22 billion in new funding.
Following his time in Congress, Dr. Holt was CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science until his retirement in 2019 and is a recipient of the association’s William D. Carey Lectureship Award (2005) and the Philip Hauge Abelson Award (2010) and various other awards and honorary degrees. He is a 5-time winner on Jeopardy! and also defeated IBM’s Watson in the game. Please welcome, Dr. Rush Holt!