David Goldston, former chief of staff at the House Science and Technology Committee, joined the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council this week, where he will supervise strategies for working with the White House and Congress as director of government affairs.

The NRDC has been noted for having several of its alumni - members of the "NRDC mafia" as a New York Times source put it in March - move into government jobs this year. But in Goldston's case, it's the other way around: before his six years serving as committee chief of staff under former Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-NY, he served as Boehlert's legislative director.

Goldston has also taught at Princeton and Harvard and written monthly columns for the science journal Nature about the intersection of science and politics.