Most scientists consider the last eight years a tough era in Washington. But President-elect Barack Obama's reported picks for Secretary of Energy and EPA

administrator and the creation of an "energy czar" signal a return to scientific principles in the decision-making process at the federal level.

And it's about time.

One of the biggest reasons to fill the scientific vacuum in Washington is the pressing need to find new sources of sustainable energy. For this to become reality, Washington needs to step up and support science when industry and academia are unwilling or unable.

Lisa Jackson, EPA head

"The federal government has an opportunity to do something," said physicist Steven Chu, Obama's Nobel Prize-winning choice to head the Department of Energy.

"To give more money to a few universities and a couple of national labs, to a core of people who can get this done."

"If the backers are willing to back you, you go for the home run. Bell

Labs would go for the home run," he said. "The United States should put down research bets to go for the home run."

Last September, Chu talked to me about the future of U.S. science as industry, universities and even national laboratories seemed to be moving away from long-term, large-scale science research. His comment came after Bell Laboratories announced it was shutting down its fundamental physics research lab, which had fostered six physics Nobel Prizes including Chu's.

The way to solve the energy problem, Chu said, is to take it on the way Bell Labs scientists tackled the problem of replacing the inefficient vacuum tubes it used to connect phone lines from one side of the country to the other, with the long-term support of a forward-thinking company. But this time, the government has to make the investment.

I met Chu four years ago when he became director of the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which I covered as a science reporter at a Bay Area newspaper. Since then, he has consistently thought big, followed through and exceeded expectations. I think he has what it takes to keep doing so.

He recognizes the need to invest in science, from grade schools to universities to industry. He sees the imperative for the government to think in new and big ways about the energy problem. He understands we have to face up to climate change. And, most importantly, he has ideas about how to get it all done and the character to make them happen.

If the word on the street is true, for first time since the post of Secretary of Energy was established in 1977, it will be filled by a Nobel laureate and an Asian American.

While these firsts are impressive, what really sets him apart is the rare combination of a brilliant scientific mind coupled with a natural way with people.

The fact that Obama made such a spot-on choice for Secretary of Energy gives me the kind of hope I haven't had in, well, at least eight years — because I think Chu has the right ideas. And I think he could be the man to make them happen.

Politicians and other people who have never met Chu are predictably questioning whether a career scientist can successfully navigate

Washington, stand up to Big Oil and push major energy reform through the legislature next year.

As a scientist and a science journalist, I may be biased in this regard, but it strikes me as highly appropriate that the federal agency that funds more scientific research than any other should be run by a scientist rather than a politician.

While current Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman taught chemical engineering at MIT, he moved into business and politics on his way to the DOE, and most of his predecessors were lawyers and politicians. Chu has worked as a research physicist since 1976 at UC Berkeley, Bell Labs and Stanford University.

And Chu isn't just a career scientist: He's one of the most respected physicists in the world.

Carol Browner, energy czar

Quick bio : The longest-serving EPA administrator in the history of the agency, Browner is the non-scientist on the team. She came up through politics, working as Al Gore's legislative director in the late 1980s, before heading the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. She was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993 to helm the EPA and left in 2001. Since then, she's been a consultant with The Albright Group.

: The longest-serving EPA administrator in the history of the agency, Browner is the non-scientist on the team. She came up through politics, working as Al Gore's legislative director in the late 1980s, before heading the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. She was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993 to helm the EPA and left in 2001. Since then, she's been a consultant with The Albright Group. Her position : The new "energy czar" will coordinate (and politically shepherd) the President-elect's various proposals around energy and the environment.

: The new "energy czar" will coordinate (and politically shepherd) the President-elect's various proposals around energy and the environment. Official line: EPA historical biography

EPA historical biography Video: A 50-second video of Carol Browner describes the first environmental decisions the President should make.

A 50-second video of Carol Browner describes the first environmental decisions the President should make. Video : Carol Browner appeared on a panel about "green recovery" earlier this month with Thomas Friedman and Pennsylvania Gov. Joseph Rendell.

: Carol Browner appeared on a panel about "green recovery" earlier this month with Thomas Friedman and Pennsylvania Gov. Joseph Rendell. Reaction, mixed: Grist: "He couldn't have picked a better person than Carol Browner," said Anna Aurilio director of the D.C. office of Environment America.

"Most unfortunate decision," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

At Bell Labs, he devised a way to cool, trap and manipulate individual atoms using lasers. Trapping atoms wasn't a new idea, but Chu figured out how to actually do it. That breakthrough opened up new realms in physics and led to important advances in molecular biology, a more accurate atomic clock and more precise measurements of gravity, which have improved exploration for oil, gas and minerals. And won him the Nobel Prize in 1997.

Physicists, though I love them, can be among the most difficult scientists to to carry on a conversation with. Not Chu. He isn't merely well-spoken for a scientist, he is well-spoken, period.

He was able to tune his explanation of his Nobel Prize-winning research precisely to my level of understanding. And I'm not alone — I've witnessed him successfully explain high-energy particle physics to Arnold Schwarzenegger as well.

He's as comfortable talking about how to solve the world's energy problems as he is describing a childhood filled with Erector sets and homemade rockets. He'd be a great guy to hang out with over a couple of beers. And while this may not seem to be an important qualification for a cabinet secretary, I think it is.

Chu has the ability to win people over, and this will be critical if he is going to make the kind of impact on the country's energy policy that I think he can.

At Berkeley Lab, he turned his considerable strength and determination as a scientist and as a leader toward ambitious energy projects in an effort to make the lab the world leader in renewable energy research. He convinced BP to spend $500 million over 10 years on a solar energy project at the lab that is researching ways to store solar energy as transportation fuel. He brought several national labs, universities and industry together to work on bioenergy at the Joint BioEnergy Institute and the Energy Biosciences Institute.

He encouraged the scientists in his charge to work on energy research. Many were inspired to take up the challenge, some even changing the entire direction of their scientific careers.

"People who were doing energy research with their left hand are now doing it with both hands," he said.

These are leadership skills that will serve him well as Energy Secretary.

And the country really, really needs some leadership in the energy arena.

Americans take for granted that the United States leads the world in science, Chu said. "But we've lost many of these leads, especially when it comes to energy."

"The U.S. is making it easier for other countries to catch up and pass us," he said. Other countries are making the right investments over the long term, more along the lines of the Bell Labs model. The Europeans had long term tax-credits, and now we use their wind-turbine technology.

The United States needs a business environment that allows businesses to make investments in science, he said. U.S. companies should be able to write off scientific research as a tax credit.

"We have an option to be a leader in energy technologies, but we are not because our support system for that is on again off again. The future wealth of the United States will come from our ability to invent new technologies."

See Also:

Image: Steven Chu with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Roy Kaltschmidt/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.