The Trump administration fired all 22 members of the National Science Board last week, sending termination notices via email with no explanation, a move that critics say leaves one of the country’s most important scientific agencies without meaningful leadership or oversight.
The National Science Board, established by Congress in 1950, advises both the president and Congress on the activities of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a primary funder of basic research in the United States. Members serve staggered six-year terms, a structure designed specifically to insulate the board from political turnover. That design appears to have done little to protect it from the current administration.
For higher education, the implications are significant. The NSF funds roughly a quarter of all basic scientific research conducted across the country, much of it at universities. Cuts to its grant-making capacity—the administration has already canceled or suspended nearly 1,400 grants since Trump returned to office—have rippled through research institutions and graduate programs. Now, with no board and no confirmed director, the agency lacks both strategic leadership and independent oversight at a moment when its budget is also under pressure: Trump’s 2027 budget proposal would slash NSF funding by more than half.
Barbara R. Snyder, president of the Association of American Universities, called the dismissals alarming.
“Without a board or a confirmed director, the foundation is rudderless at the very time when clear direction and strategic oversight for the NSF are essential to maintaining America’s global scientific leadership,” she said in a statement. Snyder also pointed to the geopolitical stakes, warning that the move “risks undermining the research, workforce development, and scientific leadership essential to U.S. competitiveness, national security, and economic growth.”
The timing raises additional concerns. According to Scientific American, the board had been preparing to release a report on the United States ceding scientific ground to China, a report that will now presumably go unpublished. Its next scheduled meeting was set for May 5.
Dan Reed, a computer scientist at the University of Utah who chaired the NSB from 2022 to 2024, told Scientific American that the action was without precedent. “We need a vibrant, independent NSB, one representative of the broad science and engineering enterprise,” he said.
For National Science Board member Marvi Matos Rodriguez, the termination came mid-task. She told the Washington Post she was in the middle of reviewing an 80-page report for her board work when the email arrived. “The idea of having six-year terms,” she said, “is you get to do something significant, impactful and go beyond administration, political administrations.”
The dismissals fit a pattern. The Trump administration has previously fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and eliminated 14 NSF advisory committees. Critics worry the NSB could eventually be restocked with political loyalists rather than independent scientists.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, was blunt in her assessment.
“This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” she said in a statement. “It unfortunately is no surprise a president who has attacked NSF from day one would seek to destroy the board that helps guide the Foundation.”
