Trump Sends More Science and Tech Nominations to Senate

President Donald Trump submitted a tranche of nominations to the Senate earlier this month including various science and technology roles at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the Commerce Department. The pace of nominations contrasts with his first term, when many science leadership positions remained vacant for long periods.

The latest picks include familiar faces from the first Trump administration, such as former Under Secretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar, who now has been tapped to be deputy secretary of commerce. In a LinkedIn post about his nomination, Dabbar wrote that in his DOE role he interacted frequently with the Commerce Department, “in particular the U.S. Patent Office (as a major generator of new technologies), NIST and NOAA on research and standards, and technology security at BIS.”

Ethan Klein, a technology policy advisor in OSTP during the first Trump administration, has been nominated to serve as U.S. chief technology officer. Klein earned a doctorate in nuclear science and engineering at MIT in 2023 and conducted research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab during his studies. If confirmed, Klein will be the first CTO at OSTP since Michael Kratsios, who held the role during the first Trump administration. The CTO role was vacant during the Biden administration. Kratsios was confirmed as director of the OSTP by the Senate today in a 74-25 vote.

At the Department of Energy, Trump nominated Catherine Jereza to be head of the Office of Electricity. Jereza served as the deputy assistant secretary for transmission permitting and technical assistance in that same office during Trump’s first term. Trump additionally nominated Timothy John Walsh, a Republican from Colorado, to lead DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for cleaning up nuclear waste dating back to the Manhattan Project. Lawyer Jonathan Brightbill, who served at the Justice Department in Trump’s first term, has also been nominated to be general counsel at DOE. These picks add to an earlier wave of nine DOE nominations.

At the Department of Defense, former Navy intelligence officer and EY managing partner Michael Cadenazzi has been nominated to be the administration’s assistant secretary for industrial-base policy, a role that is slated to include engaging with start-ups on emerging technologies. At the Commerce Department, University of Pennsylvania law professor and intellectual property expert John Squires has been nominated to lead the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Adding to these picks, Trump made another wave of personnel announcements yesterday, including the nomination of Greg Autry as chief financial officer of NASA.

These nominees now join a large group of other S&T picks awaiting Senate confirmation, including:

• Jared Isaacman to lead NASA,
• Darío Gil to be DOE’s under secretary for science and innovation,
• Brandon Williams to lead DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration,
• Emil Michael to be DOD’s under secretary for research and engineering,
• Neil Jacobs to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Taylor Jordan to be an assistant secretary of NOAA,
• Jeffrey Kessler to lead the export control arm of the Commerce Department,
• Arielle Roth to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and
• Ned Mamula to lead the U.S. Geological Survey.
  

Two key S&T roles that Trump has yet to fill are the director of the DOE Office of Science and the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.