NSF board member resigns, saying Trump’s policies have harmed the agency

^{“Alondra Nelson” by Sage Ross on Wikimedia Commons
licensed under CC by SA 2.0}

In an unprecedented move, a member of the governing body for the National Science Foundation (NSF) resigned today, saying the presidentially appointed advisory board has become a “ceremonial assemblage … without consequence” during the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Sociologist Alondra Nelson was appointed to the National Science Board (NSB) in the final months of former President Joe Biden’s administration, where she had served as acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy before returning to the Institute for Advanced Study in 2023. Her departure, which she announced this morning in an essay in Time, is believed to be the first time in the agency’s 75-year history that a member of the 24-person board resigned over a policy disagreement with an administration.

“The board should have been far more communicative—with both congressional leaders and the American public—about the changes occurring at NSF,” Nelson tells Science. “Even if these actions were taken without the board’s input or consent, I...