Nearly two years after he took office, US President Donald Trump has a White House science adviser in place. The Senate confirmed meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier for the job in a voice vote on 2 January.
Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather, will lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is the first non-physicist to head the office since it was established in 1976, and his confirmation ends a long drought in the White House.
Trump has gone longer without a science adviser than any first-term president since at least the 1950s. His choice of Droegemeier has won generally positive reviews from science-advocacy groups.
In an e-mail to Nature, Droegemeier said that he is not sure when he will be sworn in as OSTP director and begin working in the role. White House staff are affected by the US government shutdown that began on 22 December, and many have been ordered to stop working until the
