Entire NSF science advisory board fired by Trump administration

Researchers serving on the National Science Board, which advises the US National Science Foundation, received a brief email on Friday telling them that they had been dismissed. Credit: Briscoe Savoy for Nature All 22 members of the advisory board that advises and oversees the US National Science Foundation (NSF) , a leading funder of basic science, were fired on 24 April without explanation. Each member of the NSF’s National Science Board (NSB) received an email Friday afternoon saying that “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” their positions were “terminated, effective immediately”. Members of the NSB are appointed by the president and serve six year terms that are staggered, avoiding complete turnover. The White House did not immediately respond to Nature ’s queries about the reason for the terminations or whether members would be replaced. “This action to dismiss the NSB is unprecedented,” says Dan Reed, a computer scientist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and chair of the NSB from 2022–2024. “We need a vibrant, independent NSB, one representative of the broad science and engineering enterprise.” Trump team’s new rule could make firing government scientists easier Zoe Lofgren, a member of the US House of Representatives from California and the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, criticized the move. …