There may still be one person who can prevent Donald Trump, denier of the scientific consensus on global warming and vaccines and rejecter of other apparent truths, from being an “anti-science” president.

The question is whether he will find such a person. Trump hasn’t yet named a science advisor, and his team has given no indication of who it might end up being.

Every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has had a science advisor, though the influence of the position, and the extent to which it has kept presidents from neglecting or misusing empirical evidence, has varied considerably throughout the years. Richard Nixon even got rid of the position for a time. John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor, has had much more influence in the White House than did George W. Bush’s advisor, John Marburger.

At this point in 2009, Holdren had already been on the job for weeks. Trump isn’t necessarily behind schedule, though—George W. Bush didn’t name Marburger until June 2001.

Illustration by Victor Kerlow

Nonetheless, the sooner Trump appoints a science advisor the better, says Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Issues pertaining to science, technology, and engineering “are more embedded, in more policies, than ever before,” and scientific thinking is vital if a crisis arises, argues Holt, who previously served in Congress for 16 years. He says it’s in the president’s best interest to have a strong science advisor who is “at the table with the senior advisors for national security, for economics, and for domestic policy.”