Trump administration fires independent board overseeing the National
Science Foundation
[April 28, 2026]
By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has fired members of an
independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation.
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.”
“I wasn’t entirely surprised, to be honest,” said dismissed board member
Keivan Stassun in an email. Stassun, who works at Vanderbilt University,
added that the decision was “enormously disappointing.”
The National Science Board was created in 1950 to advise the president
and Congress on science and engineering policy, approve major funding
awards and guide NSF’s future.
It's typically made up of 25 members appointed by the president who
serve staggered, six-year terms. The fired scientists hail from academia
and industry and specialize in areas including astronomy, math,
chemistry and aerospace engineering.
Every member of the current 22-person board was let go, according to
terminated member Yolanda Gil. The board had planned to meet in person
next week and was finalizing a report on the state of U.S. science, Gil
said in an email.
“I think this is one more indication of the sweeping changes that the
administration has in mind for the NSF,” said Gil, who works at the
Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California.
Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, said in a statement the move was “a
dangerous attack on the institutions and expertise that drive American
innovation and discovery."
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The headquarters of the National Science Foundation is photographed
May 29, 2025, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
The Trump administration tried to cut the science foundation's $9
billion budget by more than half last year. Congress maintained
NSF's funding, but a similar slash is once again on the table for
the coming year.
Without an advisory board in the way this time, Stassun said, such
cuts may be easier to execute.
It could “eviscerate investments in fundamental research and in the
training of the next generation of scientists and engineers for our
nation," Stassun said.
The science foundation's headquarters was also relocated to a
smaller building. Last year, the U.S. 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 an emailed statement, the White House said the
powers given to the National Science Board when it was created may
need to be updated. The science foundation's work “continues
uninterrupted,” the statement said.
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