Why did Trump choose Michael Cretios, a science advisor, which is not scientific

President Trump last week Formally nominated Michael Cretios, the first Trump Administration member, has no degree in science or engineering, who is his science advisor.

Science policy experts say that Mr. Cretios has a comprehensive experience in private and public technology policy and management that makes him an attractive candidate. His expertise includes a central role in early federal efforts to speed up the rise of artificial intelligence and compete with China in its development. He will join a group of White House advisors on the subject of Fifkare.

Nevertheless, the selection of Mr. Trump is a clear break from a long tradition in which the advisors of the Presidential Sanskrit have bored top degrees and deep science roots. The appointment of Mr. Cretios has inspired other experts to warn the budget cut for health and physics.

“This is a whole disaster,” said Michael S. LubelThe world’s largest group of physicists, a professor of physics and former spokesperson of American Physical Society at City College, New York. “Climate science is dead. God knows what is going to happen to biomedicine. It marks the beginning of the decline of the golden age of American science. ,

Neil f. LaneA physicist who served as the Science Advisor to President Bill Clinton, said that the enrollment of Mr. Cretios represented an intensive change. “The first Trump was a science advisor with extraordinary credit in administration,” he said.

He was an officer Calvin DrogmierA meteorologist who did Ph.D. Urbana-Shampain, in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois. For almost a decade, till the appointment of his White House, Dr. Drogmier served as vice -president for research at the University of Oklahoma, which is a leading center in the development of weather forecasts. He also served from 2004 to 2016 National science boardWho oversees the National Science Foundation and gives free advice to the Congress and the President.

In fact, all previous science advisors of the nation had doctorates, often with the prestige for the production of Nobel Prize winners from elite universities. First, Waanever BushPresident Franklin D. The Science Advisor of Roosevelt received a doctorate jointly from MIT and Harvard. He played a central role in persuading Washington to make the first atomic bomb.

Victoria Lacivita, a spokesperson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the office would not comment on the selection of Mr. Cretios. Instead, he listed science leaders who supported Mr. Cretios, which included Sudeep ParikhHead of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Barbara R. SniderHead of the Union of American universities; And Mark bakerHead of the Union of Public Land-Old Universities.

38 -year -old Mr. Cretios grew up in South Carolina and graduated Magna Cum Loud from Princeton in 2008 Bachelor of arts in politics. He has no other degree. While staying in college, he was Trainee For Senator Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

After school, he Was a wall street analyst Prior to working in an investment fund run by bourgeoisie Peter Thial, an venture in Silicon Valley, who supported Mr. Trump’s first presidential dialect and advised him on technology issues.

In March 2017, at the beginning of his first term, Mr. Trump Appointed Mr. Cretsios as his Deputy Assistant for Technology Policy. It was the first fare of administration for science and technology advisors amid several inaugurations. In that post, he led the technical policy initiative on issues like AI, drone, quantum computing and cyber security.

At that time, Dr. Lane, the Science Advisor to Shri Clinton, referred to Mr. Cretios in an opinion of New York Times “as a technically inexperienced Silicon Valley Financer, a bachelor’s degree in political science.” The title of the essay was “Trump’s disdain for science”.

Many critics blamed the Trump administration for leaving many of their top science positions. For example, Mr. Trump Dr. Was in the office for about two years before the Drogmier Confirmed As his science advisor by the Senate.

Technical experts also accused the Trump administration of abolishing the United States AI Age in China. Mr. Cretios soon led the administration calls for the AI ​​initiative.

“We should invest in future industries,” that wrote In February 2019, a wired article required difficult AI policies. “We should now work to ensure that this innovation produces enthusiasm rather than uncertainty.”

Along with this, he played A central role What the Trump administration said as the nation’s first AI strategy, in its birth, which is known as American Artificial Intelligence Initiative,

In March 2019, Mr. Trump Formally raised Shri Cretsios to be the Chief Technology Officer of the country. Post, created By the Obama administration, the Senate is required to confirm and sits within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the President’s Science Advisor.

In July 2020, White House gave Mr. Cretios Another job – Acting Secretary of Defense Secretary for Research and Engineering. In that role, he supervised a huge maze of units that included the department’s research laboratories as well as the Space Development Agency and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

To serve them, he get The prestigious public service medal, the highest award given by the Department of Defense to private citizens or non -federal employees.

In an interview, Mr. Trump’s Science Advisor Dr. In his first term, Drogmier called Shri Cretios very smart and very well organized. He said, “They have a really good vision for things and what should be done.” “He sees through a geopolitical lens.”

Dr. Drogmier, who often collaborated with Mr. Cretios at the White House, said “he knows what he does not know” and would constantly attract experts who did.

He jokingly mentioned the degree of bachelor’s degree in Mr. Cretios politics and said that after an early encounter with him, “I wanted that degree.”

After leaving the government, when President Biden won the election in 2020, he became the managing director of Mr. Cretios Scale AIA San Francisco Startup that helps AI companies improve their products. As a major strategy of startups, His main job Companies had to help bring their AI pilot projects to maturity and commercial market.

In 2024, Pentagon Selected Scale AI to assist in its test and evaluation of AI models that can help the warriors to decide a day.

The Trump administration has given the top priority to AI. As the President-Function, Mr. Trump chose David Sachs, a silicon Valley conservative and a close associate of Elon Musk, to be his AI and Crypto Caesar.

In an interview, Dr. Lane, Mr. Clinton’s Science Advisor, said that his criticism of Mr. Cretios in 2018 did not take into consideration the progress made in his technical career. Mr. Trump chose him as a science advisor, he said that the global AI race can be seen as a warrant in view of the current push of Washington to defeat China.

Dr. Lane said, “Technology is a much more priority in the White House than in previous years,” Dr. Lane said, including Mr. Trump’s first term. And, he said, the intensive knowledge of technology and its archean complications made an important property.

“He can point to a wide range of responsibilities,” Dr. Lane said about the rizum of Shri Cretios, including not only his jobs in technology, but also his tenure as the head of Pentagon Research.

In terms of skills acquired in scientific policy and management, Dr. “He may indicate to experience that may be more important than PhD,” Lane said.