Steven Koonin was nominated to his current post in March 2009. Previously, Koonin served as chief scientist at BP, after three decades serving on the Faculty and as Provost at the California Institute of Technology. Among Koonin's responsibilities at BP was formulating the company's long-term technology strategy.

Koonin received his B.S. in Physics in 1972 at Caltech and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics in 1975 at MIT, after which he joined the Caltech faculty. His research interests have included global environmental science, nuclear astrophysics and theoretical nuclear, many-body, and computational physics. In 1998, he received the E.O. Lawrence Award in Physics from the Department of Energy (DOE).