John Paul Holdren (born in

Sewickley, Pennsylvania Sewickley is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, west northwest of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. It is a residential suburb of Pittsburgh. The population was 3,827 according to the 2010 census. The Sewickley Bridge crosses the Ohio ...

, March 1, 1944) is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

on science and technology issues through his roles as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House

Office of Science and Technology Policy An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

, and Co-Chair of the

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...

(PCAST). Holdren was previously the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the

Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the School's

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, also known as the Belfer Center, is a research center located within the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, in the United States. From 2017 until his death in Oc ...

, and Director of the

Woods Hole Research Center Woodwell Climate Research Center, formerly known as the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) until August 2020, is a scientific research organization that studies climate change impacts and solutions. The International Center for Climate Governance n ...

.News release
"Obama to Name John P. Holdren as Science Adviser"
AAAS, December 18, 2008.

Early life and education

Holdren was born in

and grew up in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

. He trained in

aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...

astronautics Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field. The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astronaut ...

and

plasma physics Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...

and earned a bachelor's degree from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1965 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1970 supervised by Oscar Buneman.

Career

Holdren taught at Harvard for 13 years and at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

for more than two decades. His work has focused on the causes and consequences of global

environmental change Environmental change is a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes. Environmental changes include various factors, such as natural disasters, human interferences, or animal in ...

, population control, energy technologies and policies, ways to reduce the dangers from

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

and materials, and science and

technology policy There are several approaches to defining the substance and scope of technology policy. According to the American scientist and policy advisor Lewis M. Branscomb, technology policy concerns the "public means for nurturing those capabilities and op ...

. He has also taken measures to contextualize the United States' current energy challenge, noting the role that nuclear energy could play. PEYA-PIAEE Awards (14905083971)

Holdren was involved in the famous

Simon–Ehrlich wager The Simon–Ehrlich wager was a 1980 scientific wager between business professor Julian L. Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich, betting on a mutually agreed-upon measure of resource scarcity over the decade leading up to 1990. The widely-followed con ...

in 1980. He, along with two other scientists helped

Paul R. Ehrlich Paul Ralph Ehrlich (born May 29, 1932) is an American biologist known for his warnings about the consequences of population growth and limited resources. He is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of St ...

establish the bet with Julian Simon, in which they bet that the price of five key metals would be higher in 1990. The bet was centered around a disagreement concerning the future scarcity of resources in an increasingly polluted and heavily populated world. Ehrlich and Holdren lost the bet, when the price of metals had decreased by 1990. In 1981, Holdren was awarded a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

(informally known as the "genius award") for his efforts to promote world peace through energy management. Holdren was chair of the Executive Committee of the

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was f ...

from 1987 until 1997 and delivered the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

acceptance lecture on behalf of Pugwash Conferences in December 1995. From 1993 until 2003, he was chair of the

Committee on International Security and Arms Control The Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC), created in 1980 by the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS), supports the nation and the public with his best members on concerns of international security and arms cont ...

of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, and Co-Chairman of the bipartisan National Committee on Energy Policy from 2002 until 2007. Holdren was elected

President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), founded in 1848, is the world's largest general scientific society. It serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science and engineering, representing 10 million individuals wo ...

(AAAS) (2006–2007), and served as board Chairman (2007–2008). He was the founding chair of the advisory board for ''

Innovations Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entit ...

'', a quarterly journal about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges published by MIT Press, and has written and lectured extensively on the topic of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. Holdren was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (2000) for articulation of energy environmental and proliferation issues. Holdren served as one of President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's science advisors (PCAST) from 1994 to 2001. Eight years later, President Barack Obama nominated Holdren for the position of science advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in December 2008, and he was

confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

on March 19, 2009, by a unanimous vote in the Senate.Library of Congres

, Nomination PN65-07-111, confirmed by Senate voice vote.Nominations considered and confirmed en bloc
Congressional Record, March 19, 2009 S3577-S3578. He testified to the nomination committee that he does not believe that government should have a role in determining optimal population size and that he never endorsed

forced sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done throug ...

.Mooney, Chri
"Hold off on Holdren (again)"
, "Science Progress", July 2009.Goldberg, Michelle
"Holdren's Controversial Population Control Past"
,

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted t ...

, July 21, 2009, accessed July 30, 2009.

Writings

Overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...

was an early concern and interest. In a 1969 article, Holdren and co-author

argued, "if the population control measures are not initiated immediately, and effectively, all the technology man can bring to bear will not fend off the misery to come."Paul R. Erlich and John P. Holdren
"Population and Panaceas A Technological Perspective"
''Bioscience'', Vol 19, pages 1065-1071, 1969. In 1973, Holdren encouraged a decline in fertility to well below replacement in the United States, because "210 million now is too many and 280 million in 2040 is likely to be much too many." (The population of the US was 327.2 million in 2018.) In 1977, Paul R. Ehrlich,

Anne H. Ehrlich Anne Howland Ehrlich (born Anne Fitzhugh Howland; November 17, 1933) is an American senior research scientist emeritus in conservation biology in the Department of Biology at Stanford University and co-author of more than thirty books on overpopul ...

, and Holdren co-authored the textbook '' Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment''. Other early publications include ''Energy'' (1971), ''Human Ecology'' (1973), ''Energy in Transition'' (1980), ''Earth and the Human Future'' (1986), ''Strategic Defenses and the Future of the Arms Race'' (1987), ''Building Global Security Through Cooperation (1990)'', and ''Conversion of Military R&D'' (1998). Holdren also authored over 200 articles and papers and has co-authored and co-edited some 20 books and book-length reports including: *''Science in the White House.''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, May 2009, 567. *''Policy for Energy Technology Innovation. Acting in Time on Energy Policy'', (with Laura Diaz Anadon, Max H. Bazerman, David T. Ellwood, Kelly Sims Gallagher, William H. Hogan, Henry Lee, and Daniel Schrag),

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

Press, 2009. *''The Future of Climate Change Policy: The U.S.'s Last Chance to Lead.''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

2008 Earth 3.0 Supplement. October 13, 2008, 20–21. *''Convincing the Climate Change Skeptics.''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

, August 4, 2008. *''Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy To Meet America's Energy Challenges.'' Presentation at the

National Academies A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humani ...

2008 Energy Summit, Washington, D.C., March 14, 2008. *''Global Climatic Disruption: Risks and Opportunities.'' Presentation at Investor Summit on Climate Risk, New York, February 14, 2008. *''Meeting the Climate-Change Challenge.'' The John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C., January 17, 2008.

Personal life

Holdren lives in

Falmouth, Massachusetts Falmouth ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferri ...

, with his wife, biologist Cheryl E. Holdren (formerly Cheryl Lea Edgar), with whom he has two children and five grandchildren.

Affiliations and awards

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

(1981) * Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(1983) * Fellow of the American Physical Society (1988) * Member of the

(1991) *

Volvo Environment Prize The Volvo Environment Prize is an annual international award originating in Sweden. The prize is awarded to individuals who "''explore the way to a sustainable world''." The prize is awarded by the independent foundation ''The Volvo Environment P ...

(1993 with Paul Ehrlich) * Kaul Foundation Award in Science and Environmental Policy (1999) * Member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

(2000) *

Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is an annual award for environmental science, environmental health, and energy. Tyler Laureates receive a $200,000 cash prize and a medallion. The prize is administered by the University of Southern Cal ...

(2000) * 7th Annual

Heinz Award The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...

in Public Policy (2001) * Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(2015) * Lawrence S. Huntington Environmental Prize (2017) * Public Welfare Medal from

References

External links

Biography
at the

* * *
John Holdren
at Harvard Kennedy School's

Holdren's Faculty page
at

Presidential Address: Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being
in

25.January.2008 Vol. 319. no. 5862, pp. 424 – 434
The New Team: John P. Holdren
profile at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
John Holdren Speech at the Harvard Kennedy School Forum
"Global Climate Disruption: What do we know? What should we do?"
Lead essay for ''Innovations'' journal (Vol. 1, No. 2)
"The Energy Innovation Imperative: Addressing Oil Dependence, Climate Change, and Other 21st Century Energy Challenges"
snippets of Holdren answering questions from the House of Representatives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holdren, John 1944 births American earth scientists American environmentalists 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Foreign Members of the Royal Society Harvard Kennedy School faculty Living people MacArthur Fellows Massachusetts Democrats Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Obama administration personnel Office of Science and Technology Policy officials People from Sewickley, Pennsylvania Stanford University alumni Sustainability advocates Technology in society University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources faculty