The U.S. Department of Energy is bursting with, well, energy, now that its new secretary, Steven Chu, has been sworn in.

Six of my colleagues at the American Association for the Advancement of Science have fellowships at Energy. I spoke to one, who thought that this appointment makes a positive statement about Obama’s approach to energy policy. If Obama had appointed oilman turned alternative energy and natural gas promoter T. Boone Pickens, for example, that would have set a different tone, as would the appointment of a lawyer, or a businessman tied to the energy sector.

Chu’s appointment to the Cabinet-level position of energy secretary means a “scientist has a voice in the Cabinet,” my colleague said. Obama also can consult with John Holdren, the scientist appointed to direct the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Chu won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 for using lasers to cool and trap atoms. In the ensuing decade he has been an outspoken advocate of renewable energy sources. He formerly headed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, overseeing 4,000 employees and a $650 million budget – so he’s no stranger to government bureaucracy. As a scientist in academia (he spent some of his career at Stanford), he realizes the importance of government funding for basic research.