Senator Lankford Introduces OU Professor at Nomination Hearing

CLICK HERE for the video for Lankford’s and Dregemeier’s testimony 

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today introduced Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, a professor and former Vice President for Research at the University of Oklahoma, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Droegemeier was nominated by the President on July 31 to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma, and his Masters and Ph.D. from Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Excerpts from Senator Lankford’s remarks:

(0:30-1:22) Dr. Droegemeier has served as science and engineering research, and education communities at the national level for more than 25 years. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the US Senate he served six years on the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation, but also provided science policy guidance to the Congress and the President. Dr. Droegemeier was re-nominated by President Obama and again confirmed by the Senate serving a second six-year term on the National Science Board, the last four years as the vice chairman. He took the University of Oklahoma and the research facilities and what was happening there when he was Vice President to Carnegie R1 status, which is the top status. He has an impressive record that I am sure you have seen and have had the opportunity to be able to go through and see the research and see his background but one of the most impressive statements that I think that you will get from him is science has no politics. Science is just science. It’s the facts that you are looking at. 

(1:45-1:41) It’s interesting to see, if you’ve gone through his extensive resume and background, to be able to see backgrounds with all these different awards, all these different published articles, all these things that he has done over the years but right in the middle of all of it he also has listed as one of his honors and awards “Head Usher” at his church, which again shows the humanity of saying there are a lot of things that you can do in your personal life. And that you can be engaged in and be able to keep life in perspective, as well.

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