Changes at DOE, NASA

The Bush administration’s post-election shuffle has included changes in the top jobs at both NASA and the Department of Energy. Spencer Abraham announced his resignation at DOE in mid-November, saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife and three daughters. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe resigned in mid-December and is returning to his home state of Louisiana to become the chancellor of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Samuel Bodman, a Treasury Department official with a background in chemical engineering, was nominated by President Bush to replace Abraham as the secretary of energy. Bodman, 66, is better known in the financial community than the energy industry, but was recommended for the energy job by outgoing Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, a close friend of President Bush.

Before moving to the Treasury Department, Bodman was a deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce, where he was responsible for oversight of both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NIST He graduated from MIT in 1965 with an ScD and spent several years at the school as an associate professor of chemical engineering. He left MIT and spent 17 years with Fidelity Investments in Boston, and then became chairman of Cabot Corp, a Boston-based chemical company.

A search is under way for a new administrator at NASA, but it is not clear if anyone will be named before O’Keefe’s planned departure date in mid-February.