UK seeks new science adviser

BBC : A number of candidates are being considered for the post of UK chief science adviser, the person responsible for providing scientific advice to the prime minister and authoritative analysis during a crisis. For example, the science adviser had to decide whether to evacuate British nationals from Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster last year and when to resume flying planes after the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. The highest-profile name among the current candidates is Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust and a former professor of medicine and head of the division of medicine at Imperial College London. The successful candidate will take office at the end of the year, when the current adviser, John Beddington, retires.