According to the Kennedy School press release, Obama plans to announce Harvard professor John P. Holdren as his Chief Science Adviser, during his weekly radio broadcast Saturday. The position, which also includes directing the Office of Science and Technology Policy, requires Senate confirmation after Obama assumes office on January 20.

An MIT graduate, Holdren earned a masters degree from MIT and a Ph.D. from Stanford in aerospace engineering and plasma physics. After teaching at the University of California at Berkeley for nearly 25 years, he joined Harvard in 1996.

Currently directing the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Holdren has also run the prestigious Woods Hole Research Center for the past three years and served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006.

Holdren, as an expert on energy and climate, has been vocal on the issue of global warming. He has argued that the world is experiencing dangerous climate change due to fossil fuel combustion, and opines that a strong and rapid global effort can help avert a catastrophe. He thinks that if the US leads with emission reduction requirements, the rest of the world will follow.

The Harvard professor said he hoped that the next administration would “really break its spear on the question of can we get a sensible climate policy with the Congress and the public behind it” in time to go to the final round of negotiations on a new international treaty late next year “and finally have a voice that is respected by other countries.”