Ottawa--Over the last decade, an army of Canadian advisory groups, task forces, and parliamentary panels has urged the government to appoint a high-level science adviser to oversee the nation's research efforts. One former auditor general even pleaded with officials to "put somebody in charge."
CREDIT: NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
Last week, Canada's new prime minister, Liberal Paul Martin, took the hint and appointed chemist Arthur Carty (above) to the new post of national science adviser. A former research dean at the University of Waterloo, Carty, 63, has been president of Canada's National Research Council since 1994 and is credited with revitalizing the once moribund national laboratories. As science adviser in the prime minister's office, he's expected to promote commercialization of academic research, identify gaps in government funding, and brief Martin on pressing scientific issues. "I know less and less about more and more," he quipped.
Carty starts his new job on 1 April. Martin, meanwhile, has abolished an existing junior cabinet slot overseeing science. That change is part of a reorganization to reward supporters of Martin's decade-long campaign to succeed Jacques Chrétien as party leader.
