Alondra Nelson

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, and the first woman of color to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) earlier in the Biden administration, is set to step down from her current post as a deputy director on February 10, 2023.

"Alondra Nelson took the helm as interim director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy and helped President Joe Biden’s administration to develop key pieces of its science agenda, including its scientific-integrity policy and new guidance on open science."

The 2022–23 academic year sees new Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg welcome new and returning Members from 36 countries, representing approximately 107 academic institutions worldwide.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), under the leadership of Alondra Nelson, updated U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research immediately available to the American public at no cost. 

“We can see the unseen. An astonishing deep-field image of crashing galaxies and bygone nebulae. A glimpse at what the death of our own sun might look like. Baby stars being born perched on cosmic cliffs. The first photographs of the JWST are breathtaking, and they will dramatically change how we understand the universe."

"On Juneteenth, we think of Black Americans who descended from enslaved people who live today with wrongs we know, in many cases, how to set right. Our challenge as a policy office is how to do it at scale, across the entire Federal government, drawing on the talent of an increasingly inclusive and equitable research community."

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has been awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by Rutgers University, an honor presented to her at the 2022 Rutgers Commencement by the 21st president of Rutgers, Jonathan Scott Holloway. 

"For generations, science and tech have not spurred the same discussions about identity and racial and gender equity that other policy areas have. Now, though, as the lines between the digital world and the real world blur, the costs of ignoring...

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, has been appointed by President Joe Biden to perform the duties of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and as Deputy Assistant to the President.

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor, has been elected to the newest class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a lifetime honor and one of the most laudable distinctions in the scientific community.