Bruce Alberts, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco and a two-time president of the National Academy of Sciences, has been named the next editor in chief of the journal Science.

Mr. Alberts, a prominent figure in science and science education, succeeds Donald Kennedy, who announced this year that he planned to retire from the editor’s job in February 2008. Mr. Alberts will take over in that month.

Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It has had a tradition of naming well-known scientists or scientific administrators to the editor’s post. Before Mr. Kennedy, a former president of Stanford University, the editor’s job was held by Floyd Bloom, a pioneering neuroscientist, and the late Daniel E. Koshland, a biochemist who helped explain how enzymes catalyze the chemical reactions that sustain life.

Like his predecessors, Mr. Alberts will devote half of his time to Science, retaining his faculty position at San Francisco. —Josh Fischman