The Trump administration has fired members of an independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF), a move that scientists and lawmakers are calling a dangerous attack on American innovation.
Termination of the National Science Board
Members of the National Science Board received an email on Friday sent from the Presidential Personnel Office “on behalf of President Donald J Trump” stating that their position was “terminated, effective immediately”. The board, created in 1950, is responsible for advising the president and Congress on science and engineering policy, approving major funding awards, and guiding the NSF’s future.
“I wasn’t entirely surprised, to be honest,” said dismissed board member Keivan Stassun, who works at Vanderbilt University. He added that the decision was “enormously disappointing”. The board typically consists of 25 members appointed by the president, serving staggered six-year terms. The fired scientists come from academia and industry, specializing in fields such as astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and aerospace engineering.
Reactions from Scientists and Lawmakers
Every member of the current 22-person board was let go, according to terminated member Yolanda Gil, who works at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California. The board had planned to meet in person next week and was finalizing a report on the state of US science, Gil said. “I think this is one more indication of the sweeping changes that the administration has in mind for the NSF,” she added.
Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, called the move “a dangerous attack on the institutions and expertise that drive American innovation and discovery”. The Trump administration had previously attempted to cut the NSF’s $9 billion budget by more than half last year, but Congress maintained funding. With the advisory board now gone, Stassun warned that such cuts might be easier to execute, potentially “eviscerate investments in fundamental research and in the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers for our nation”.
Additional Changes and White House Response
The NSF’s headquarters has also been relocated to a smaller building. Last year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would be moving into the NSF’s former base in Alexandria, Virginia. The National Science Foundation directed a request for comment to the White House. In a statement, the White House said the powers given to the National Science Board when it was created might need to be updated, and emphasized that the NSF’s work “continues uninterrupted”.
