LA JOLLA – Two UC San Diego scholars have been tapped to join President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

Peter Cowhey, dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, will help lead a group advising the incoming administration on trade policy. Specifically, Cowhey is to work with economic policy specialists in the next two months to prepare for the new administration's special representative for trade policy.

Cowhey, a political scientist, is an expert on international trade and regulatory issues, according to the university.

Mario Molina, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, will help spearhead a group looking at the nation's science and technology policies. Molina won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research examining the threat posed by chlorofluorocarbon gases, or CFCs, to the Earth's ozone layer.

Molina is expected to help shape initial policies aimed at lessening the effects of global warming, the university said.

Cowhey and Molina could not be reached for comment late yesterday, but UCSD Chancellor Marye Ann Fox said in a statement that the work they do now will serve the country for years to come.

“These two multifaceted scholars represent the exceptional and deep reservoir of talent among our ranks at UC San Diego,” Fox stated. “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.”