OSTP scientists move to NIST, NSF

Two deputy directors at the Office of Science and Technology Policy have been nominated by President Bush to move to more influential management positions in government. Astronomer William Jeffrey, who spent much of his career working on defense and national-security issues, will become the director of NIST; Kathie Olsen, associate director for science at OSTP, will become the deputy director of NSF. Jeffrey, the senior director for homeland and national security and the assistant director for space and aeronautics at OSTP, is expected to continue NIST’s work on developing technology for the federal government’s electronic identification systems. Jeffrey has a PhD in astronomy. Olsen, who has a PhD in neuroscience, was acting deputy director for NSF’s division of integrative biology and neuroscience in the mid-1990s. She became NASA’s chief scientist in 1999 and moved to OSTP in 2002. At press time, both Jeffrey and Olsen were expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate.