SAN DIEGO -- Two prominent scholars at the University of California at San Diego have been named by President-elect Barack Obama to serve on his transition teams, UCSD officials said Monday.

According to a news release, Peter Cowhey, of the UC San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, has been chosen as a Co-Leader of the President-Elect transition team preparing for the new Administration’s Special Representative for Trade Policy. UC San Diego Nobel laureate, Mario Molina, a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been named as Co-Leader of the transition team assigned to develop plans for the nation's science and technology policy.

Commenting on the announcements, UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said, “These two multi-faceted scholars represent the exceptional and deep reservoir of talent among our ranks at UC San Diego. This is a good sign from the new administration to be reaching beyond the Washington infrastructure to call upon the experience, talent and wisdom of Peter Cowhey and Mario Molina. The public service they will be performing will serve our nation for many years to come."

As co-leader for U.S. Trade Representative Transition, Cowhey will help evaluate policies and personnel for this cabinet-level agency, which is the lead organization for establishing U.S. trade policy. As such, Cowhey will work closely with the Transition’s economic policy cluster over the next two months leading to the presidential inauguration. Cowhey, a political scientist, is an expert on international trade and regulatory issues. His newest book examines the transformation of global information and communications markets.

Molina, a professor in the UCSD Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases, or CFCs. He is a member of a world-renowned group of atmospheric chemists at UCSD that includes Paul Crutzen, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Molina. It is expected that Molina will bring his experience to help shape initial policies that would help mitigate the impacts of global warming.