Former NSF leaders and its board urge Senate to restore agency’s governance

After the Trump administration recently fired all 22 members of the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF) governing body 13 former NSF leaders and board chairs have spoken out publicly against the decision.

The mass dismissal of those currently serving on the National Science Board (NSB), which establishes the NSF’s policies and strategic direction and also provides independent advice to the President and Congress on science and engineering, came on 24 April without any explanation. This sparked significant concern within the US’s research and science advocacy communities. Adding to this was the fact that the NSF, which is the primary funder for chemistry in the US, hasn’t had a permanent director for over a year. It’s former director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, abruptly resigned in April 2025 with more than a year left of his term.

In a 30 April letter to the White House science adviser and Senate leadership, the 13 past heads of the NSF and NSB, who have served across the administrations of both parties, ‘underscore the urgency of restoring full leadership and governance’ at the NSF ‘during a period of intense international competition’. The signatories argue that research funded by the NSF is ‘the nation’s primary hedge against the risk of scientific surprise’.

They assert that the agency needs both a permanent head and the NSB, and urge the Senate to ‘promptly address the vacancy in the position of NSF director’ and the White House to ‘quickly seat a highly qualified new National Science Board’.

An NSB that has deep and broad scientific expertise will give the agency’s new director the expert and independent counsel needed to succeed, the letter reads. This will also send ‘a clear signal’ to the US scientific community and to its competitors about the country’s commitment to lead the world in science and technology, its authors assert.

Notably, two of the most recent directors of the NSF – Panchanathan and France Córdova, who was appointed by former President Obama and served the remainder of her term during the first Trump administration – did not sign the letter. But among those who did is Ellen Ochoa, who chaired the NSB under Trump from May 2020 until January 2021, as well as Diane Souvaine, who held that role under Trump from 2018 to 2020, and Maria Zuber, who chaired the board under Obama but continued to serve as a regular member of the board under Trump until 2021.