Johnson nominated to Obama energy team

Kristina Johnson, Hopkins provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, was recently nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as undersecretary of the Department of Energy.

If confirmed, Johnson will work with the Obama administration to lead initiatives in the development of renewable and alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.

Given that energy reform was a central component of Obama's platform and many of his speeches since election, this nomination reflects the high quality of Johnson's accomplishments. Hopkins President Ronald Daniels noted the prestige of Johnson's nomination.

"It is not only an honor for Provost Johnson but an honor for Johns Hopkins," he wrote in an e-mail to the News-Letter. "We have such high regard for her and President Obama obviously agrees with how truly wonderful she is. In two short years she has had an enormous impact on Johns Hopkins."

A University press release noted that Scott Zeger, vice provost for research and a professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, is to serve as the acting Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, effective immediately.

Zeger has been a member of the Hopkins faculty since 1982. If Johnson is confirmed by the Senate, Zeger will serve as acting provost and the University will begin a search for a new provost. As President Daniels noted, this search has not yet begun.

"If and when she is confirmed, I will appoint a search committee," he wrote. "There will be a national search for her successor."

Zeger noted that Johnson's nomination was well-deserved.

"Her nomination is a testament to her skills, experience and leadership as a scientist, educator and entrepreneur," he wrote in an e-mail to the News-Letter. "I also think her nomination says a lot about the type of people that Johns Hopkins University selects to lead this institution."

Zeger felt honored to be asked by President Daniels to serve as acting provost. According to Zeger, the provost coordinates with the president, deans and the directors of all the Hopkins schools, and also assists with budgeting.

"As acting provost, it's my responsibility to support our world-class faculty and to ensure that our students are getting the best educational experience possible at Johns Hopkins. To that end, I am very excited to be working with President Daniels on looking closely at many of the issues facing Hopkins students today," he wrote.

Johnson has been the University Provost since the summer of 2007, when she replaced Steven Knapp. She is the first woman to hold the second highest administrative office at the University.

Prior to her time at Hopkins, Johnson was a faculty member at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and then a dean of engineering at Duke University. She is also a fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Optical Society of America. She was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2003 and a year later went on to win the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers. Last year she received the John Fritz Medal, widely viewed as the highest honor in engineering.

Much of her acclaim derives from her work with "smart pixel arrays," a method of using one optical beam to transmit information to and from each cell of a pixel array.

In order to be approved for the position, Johnson must first be confirmed by the Senate. Before candidates are confirmed, they are directed not to speak with the press and sometimes even prevented from working with the departments they will be serving, according to an article in the Washington Post.

The confirmation process is a long one that involves an intense examination of the nominee's financial background, including taxes and contributions to and from charitable organizations, as well as associations with non-governmental groups.

In the past, the confirmation process has shown some candidates to be ineligible for positions, such as Thomas Daschle, who had to withdraw from the nomination to become Secretary of Health and Human Services due to unpaid taxes and penalties.

While some have complained about the slow speed of the confirmation process, the Obama administration has said that it is holding its nominees to the highest ethical degree possible.

So far, the average confirmation time has been approximately 65 days.