Obama picks Nobel man for energy

Mr Chu won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1997

US President-elect Barack Obama has named physics Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as his energy secretary.

Dr Chu is an energy specialist and the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Mr Obama also picked former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Lisa Jackson to head the environmental protection agency (EPA).

Carol Browner, EPA chief under Bill Clinton, will co-ordinate White House policy on energy and climate change.

Mr Obama named Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, as head of the White House's council on environmental quality.

Announcing the environment team, the president-elect vowed to "move beyond our oil addiction and create a new hybrid economy".

The incoming president has said that tackling climate change will be one of his administration's top priorities.

Dr Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for physics for his work on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light and is a leader in the field to combat climate change using scientific methods.