He's got this job down to a science.

• Position: People

Lasers and astrophysics are second nature to Bob McMahan. North Carolina's newly appointed science adviser is the son of a physicist and had a childhood steeped in the principles of science. "Our dinner-table conversation was about laser properties," the 42-year-old says.

The Department of Commerce seems to have found its Mr. Wizard in Mr. McMahan. He has worked for Harvard, consulted for the CIA and designed products for NASA. In addition to his new job at Commerce, which he started in September, he's a professor of physics and astronomy at UNC Chapel Hill.

As science adviser, McMahan confers with Gov. Mike Easley and Commerce Secretary Jim Fain on science-and technology-related matters and is executive director of the N.C. Board of Science and Technology. His aim is to promote the growth of a knowledge-based economy in a state long reliant on manufacturing. He meets with entrepreneurs, professors, economic developers and legislators on issues such as technology transfer from universities, favorable business tax policies and job creation.

Growing up in Florida, McMahan soaked up knowledge from his dad and uncle, North Carolina natives who in the '70s formed Control Laser, one of the nation's largest makers of gas-ion lasers--used, for example, in the first laser printers. McMahan got bachelor's degrees in physics and art history from Duke in 1982. After a doctorate in physics from Dartmouth University in 1986, he accepted a fellowship at the Harvard-Smith-sonian Center...