NOAA via Getty Images

President Biden has chosen Rick Spinrad, a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University, as his pick to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Spinrad has spent more than three decades as an ocean scientist, serving as NOAA's chief scientist during the Obama administration and in leadership positions at the U.S. Office of Naval Research and Oceanographer of the Navy.

The NOAA houses the National Weather Service and is responsible for most of the country's climate science research. The White House has requested from Congress $6.9 billion to fund NOAA, with much of it going to pay for climate science research, Axios reports.