Rick Borchelt is director of communications and public affairs for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Mr. Borchelt has held numerous high-level communications positions, most recently as special assistant for public affairs in the Office of the Director at the National Cancer Institute. He served as executive communications director for the Pew-funded Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University and as communications director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Science Communication and as a member of the National Academy of Science's Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences. Mr. Borchelt also has directed media relations for the National Academy of Sciences, acted as press secretary for the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee, and was special assistant for public affairs in the Executive Office of the President during the Clinton administration. He has worked overseas as well. He spent time in Nairobi, Kenya, as executive speechwriter to the United Nations under the secretary general and executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Mr. Borchelt received a B.S. in biology from Southeast Missouri State University.