An article published Friday in The New Yorker magazine details how Oregon's Art Robinson has been floated as a potential pick for national science advisor to President Donald Trump.

Robinson, a sheep rancher and biochemist who gained public attention from his four failed campaigns for Congress, told The Oregonian/OregonLive he didn't know he had been considered.

"I don't have any knowledge about that," he said. "No one has called me or asked to interview me. I'd love to do the job but nobody has offered it to me."

The New Yorker article focuses on the ways billionaire businessman Robert Mercer aided in Trump's ascendancy to the White House. But it also describes how Mercer backed Robinson and how his daughter, Rebekah Mercer, was involved with the Trump transition. It was she who suggested Robinson be the president's national science advisor.

Robinson operates a laboratory in Cave Junction financially backed by the Mercers. He has faced criticism for his denial of evolution and dismissal of climate change as a "false religion" -- along with his experiments on human urine, which he hopes will delay human aging.

Rebekah Mercer's suggestion to Trump administration officials that Robinson be named national science advisor "has gone nowhere," according to the article, which was first highlighted by Willamette Week.

The current frontrunners for the position are Princeton physicist William Happer and Yale computer scientist David Gelernter, according to science and technology publication Ars Technica. Both have more traditional science backgrounds but align with Robinson on one key point: their strong denial of climate change.

Along with his scientific exploits, Robinson is known for his candidacies in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 for Oregon's 4th Congressional District, which is held by Peter DeFazio, a Democrat.

As for Robinson, he said it was "pretty nice" of Rebekah Mercer to think of him as potential for a presidential appointment.

"I'm a long way from Washington and New York, so I'm not sure what's going on there," Robinson said. "Where do I find this New Yorker article?"

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com; 503-221-8209