Dr. Bob Simon is an advisor on energy, environment, and the intersection of science, technology and public policy. He served as Principal Advisor to the Director for Energy, Transportation, and Resources at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP from April 2015 to April 2016. He joined OSTP in 2013. From March to June 2013, he was a Senior Advisor in the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy.

From 1999 to 2013, he was the Democratic Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the full committee Staff Director when Democrats were in the majority in the Senate. His work at the committee contributed to the enactment of 426 public laws in the areas of energy policy, public lands conservation, and natural resources management. He played a major role in the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

From 1989 to 1998, he was with the U.S. Department of Energy, where he was the founding Executive Director of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and then Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Research (1989-1993), and then assigned on detail as a technical and scientific advisor in the U.S. Senate (1993-1998).

In 2006, Dr. Simon was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, for his contributions to integrating science with public policy.

A graduate of Ursinus College, Dr. Simon received his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from MIT.