National Science Board eviscerated; Trump admin fires all 22 members

Another blow National Science Board eviscerated; Trump admin fires all 22 members Members had planned to release report that US is ceding scientific ground to China. Beth Mole – Apr 27, 2026 11:04 am | 119 The National Science Foundation headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg The National Science Foundation headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav All 22 members of the National Science Board were terminated by the Trump administration via a terse email on Friday. The administration has provided no explanation for purging the board, which helps steer the National Science Foundation and acts as an independent advisory body for the president and Congress on scientific and engineering issues, providing reports throughout the year. The ousters represent another severe blow to the NSF and the overall scientific enterprise in America. Members received a two-sentence email saying that, “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” their positions were “terminated, effective immediately.” Keivan Stassun, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University and director of the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-intensive Astrophysics, was among those terminated. After reaching out to fellow board members and finding that they, too, had been terminated, he described the move to The Los Angeles Times as “a wholesale evisceration of American leadership in science and technology globally.” NSB members are appointed by the president and serve six-year terms, which overlap to provide continuity. Other members who spoke to reporters at Nature News told the outlet that the board was set to meet on May 5 and planned to release a report on how the US is ceding ground to China on scientific endeavors. Assault on science The NSF and the board were established by President Harry Truman in 1950. “We have come to know that our ability to survive and grow as a Nation depends to a very large degree upon our scientific progress,” Truman said after creating them. “Moreover, it is not enough simply to keep abreast of the rest of the world in scientific matters. We must maintain our leadership.” The loss of all board members is just the latest attack on the NSF. Last year, the Trump administration proposed cutting its $9 billion budget by 55 percent, terminated hundreds of its active research grants, significantly slowed the pace of new grant awards, and laid off or forced out a massive chunk of its staff. Its director, a Trump appointee, resigned under the assault. Trump has nominated biotech investor Jim O’Neill, who lacks scientific expertise, to be the next NSF director. Roger Beachy, a terminated board member, told Nature he was concerned about political interference and suspected the board may have been cleared out to make way for O’Neill’s hand-picked members. The Trump administration has a track record of such moves. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expelled all 17 members of an influential vaccine advisory board and replaced them with allies, who are largely unqualified but share Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views. Trump also packed the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology not with leading scientists and researchers but with tech billionaires, including…

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