Dr. David Goldston, Energy Policy Scholar

David Goldston became Director of Government Affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group, in July 2009. Prior to that, he had spent more than 20 years on Capitol Hill, working primarily on science policy and environmental policy. He was Chief of Staff of the House Committee on Science from 2001 through 2006, and immediately prior to that was Legislative Director for Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY).

After retiring from government service, Goldston was a visiting lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2007 and at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in 2008 and 2009. From 2007 through November 2009, he wrote a monthly column for Nature on science policy titled “Party of One.” Goldston also was the project director for the Bipartisan Policy Center report “Improving the Use of Science in Regulatory Policy,” which was released in August 2009. He authored a chapter in The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Stanford University Press, 2011).

He holds a B.A. (1978) from Cornell University and completed the course work for a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Pennsylvania.