Physicist Rush Holt to retire from Congress

Science : Rush Holt (D-NJ) has announced that he does not plan to seek reelection to the US House of Representatives, where he has served since 1999. A plasma physicist by training, he is a former assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. While in office, Holt did not focus specifically on science legislation, but he applied his scientific training to issues in other areas, such as banking and education. Holt did not specify why he is retiring, but it has been speculated that he may be preparing to run for governor of New Jersey in 2017.