Late Monday, the Senate voted 78-16 to confirm Dr. Lester Crawford as commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration. Crawford, who has a doctorate in pharmacology, is the first veterinarian to be named as head of the nation’s drug regulatory agency. Crawford has been serving as acting FDA commissioner. A worldwide authority on food safety, Crawford has served as an adviser to the U.N.’s World Health Organization for nearly 20 years. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in the U.K. Earlier in his career, he was administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety & Inspection Service.