ARPA-E head nominated as DOE undersecretary

Science : Arun Majumdar, founding director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), may soon become undersecretary for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Although Majumdar has been acting undersecretary since March, the Obama administration did not officially nominate him until November. The confirmation process is expected to take several months, althoughhe appears to have strong bipartisan support after his Senate confirmation hearing yesterday. In the meantime, there is speculation about whether Majumdar will also retain his position at ARPA-E or whether someone else will be nominated to head that agency.