Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been named by the Obama-Biden presidential transition office to serve on the Agency Review Team for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

Dean Bierbaum, who spent 20 years in public service at the federal level, is one of 14 members serving on the Executive Office of the President Team. According to the Obama-Biden Transition Web site, the teams will complete a review of key departments, agencies and commissions of the U.S. government, as well as the White House, to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect and key advisers with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration.

Further, the teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.

Mark Van Putten, a member of the SNRE Visiting Committee and a Public Service Law Fellow at the U-M Law School, also has been named to an Agency Review Team. He is serving on the Energy and Natural resources Team and is providing expertise and input related to the Department of the Interior. Van Putten is founder and president of ConservationStrategy LLC, an environmental strategy and organizational development consulting firm in the Washington, D.C.

Dean Bierbaum brings to the team expertise and familiarity with OSTP, where she was acting director at the very end of President Clinton's administration and 10 months into the Bush Administration. Preceding that appointment, she directed OSTP's first Environment Division. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Associate Director for Environment of OSTP July 30, 1998. In that capacity, she served as the administration's senior scientific adviser on environmental research and development, with responsibilities for scientific input and guidance on a range of national and international environmental issues. These included global change, air and water quality, biodiversity, ecosystem management, environmental monitoring and energy research and development.

She worked closely with the President's National Science and Technology Council, and co-chaired its Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources, which coordinated the $5 billion federal research and development efforts in this area, including the (then) $2 billion US Global Change Research Program.

Further, Dean Bierbaum's office orchestrated the U.S. government reviews of the IPCC second and third assessment reports in 1995 and 2000. She also led the U.S. delegations to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Plenary in Shanghai in 2001, the IPCC Plenary in Montreal in 1999, and the IPCC plenary in Costa Rica in 1998, and served as alternate head of delegation to the IPCC plenary in Mexico City in 1996.í‚   She headed the U.S. delegation for the U.S./China bilateral on Climate Science in 2000.

Congress established OSTP through the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (P.L. 94-282). The act states: "The primary function of the OSTP Director is to provide, within the Executive Office of the President [EOP], advice on the scientific, engineering, and technological aspects of issues that require attention at the highest level of Government." Further, "The Office shall serve as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans, and programs of the Federal Government."

The OSTP director also manages the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), established by Executive Order 12881, which coordinates science and technology (S&T) policy across the federal government, establishes national goals for federal S&T investments and prepares coordinated research and development strategies. In addition, the OSTP director co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, established by Executive Order 13226.

Dean Bierbaum, SNRE dean since October 2001, is on leave in order to co-author and co-direct the World Bank's prestigious World Development Report 2010, which will focus on climate change and development. Published since 1978, the World Development Report is an annual publication that focuses on a different topic each year and aims both to consolidate existing knowledge on a particular aspect of development and to stimulate debate on new directions for development policy.

For more on the transition teams, visit change.gov/learn/obama_biden_transition_agency_review_teams

About the School of Natural Resources and Environment:
The School of Natural Resources and Environment's overarching objective is to contribute to the protection of the earth's resources and the achievement of a sustainable society. Through research, teaching, and outreach, faculty, staff, and students are devoted to generating knowledge and developing policies, techniques and skills to help practitioners manage and conserve natural and environmental resources to meet the full range of human needs on a sustainable basis. To learn more, visit www.snre.umich.edu/.