On May 19, 2021, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that Dr. Mike Kuperberg is returning to USGCRP as Executive Director. This is his second stint in USGCRP leadership, having served previously as Executive Director from 2015 through November 2020. He is detailed from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, where he has managed environmental research programs since 2003.
 

As Executive Director of USGCRP, Dr. Kuperberg is responsible for coordinating the research needs and investments of 13 federal agencies with interests in global change research. In this position, he works closely with OSTP and federal agencies, from program managers to Senate-confirmed political appointees. In his previous tenure with USGCRP, he oversaw the completion and release of the Fourth National Climate Assessment and the commencement of the Fifth.
 

He returns to the role at a time when climate and global change is at the forefront of the Biden Administration’s priorities. Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Deputy Director for Climate and the Environment at OSTP, issued a letter to Dr. Kuperberg, challenging USGCRP to “accelerate action on two fronts—advancing science to increase our knowledge, especially on societally relevant topics, and ensuring that knowledge is understandable, accessible and useable to the key stakeholders—from fishermen, farmers and ranchers to mayors and governors, from small business leaders to industry, from Wall Street to Main Street.”
 

Read the full letter here.