Science Advisor to the President Science Advisor to the President The Science Advisor to the President is an individual charged with providing advisory opinions and analysis on science and technology matters to the President of the United States. The first Science Advisor, Vannevar Bush, chairman of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, served Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1941 to 1951. President Truman created the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1951, establishing the chairman of this committee as the President's Science Advisor. This committee continued under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon
Counselor to the President the post became much more focused on communications. Two of Clinton's counselors, David Gergen and Paul Begala, later became CNN political analysts. During the administration of George W. Bush, the Counselor oversaw the Communications, Media Affairs, Speechwriting, and Press Offices. Under the Obama Administration, the position was initially abolished and the duties of the office transferred to three senior advisors: David Axelrod, Pete Rouse, and Valerie Jarrett, who also held the title Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison. On January 6, 2011, President Obama appointed Rouse as Counselor to the President where he was responsible for