The Trump administration has drawn backlash from the scientific community after removing the entire National Science Board.
More than 20 board members, each appointed to six-year terms, were notified on April 24 that they were being removed, with notices stating that the decision took effect immediately, Reuters reports.
“Yes, all 22 current members of the National Science Board were terminated on Friday, effective immediately,” members Yolanda Gil and Keivan Stassun said in a statement.
“No reason was given,” said Gil, who works at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California.
The National Science Board was created in 1950 to oversee the National Science Foundation and advise the president and Congress on science and engineering policy. It has long operated independently with no interference from the current administration. But since returning to office in early 2025, the Trump administration has faced criticism from political experts who say it is pressuring independent institutions by replacing leadership and sidelining dissenting voices.
“The board’s structure — staggered terms, designed over 75 years — existed precisely so that no single administration could walk in and take the wheel. Trump walked in and took the wheel,” an Instagram post from Jenni Wren states.
“With no board and no confirmed director, there is no independent check on how nearly $9 billion in research funding gets directed,” she added, noting that “While we gut our own scientific infrastructure, China is investing. Heavily. In the exact fields — AI, quantum computing, biotechnology — where American leadership is not guaranteed and has to be earned, year after year, grant by grant.”
The move comes amid the Trump administration’s push for deep cuts to the National Science Foundation, raising concerns that the longstanding independence of federal science grant decisions could be at risk. One dismissed board member, Willie May—vice president for research and economic development at Morgan State University—said he was “deeply disappointed,” though not surprised.
“I have watched the systematic dismantling of the scientific advisory infrastructure of this government with growing alarm, and the National Science Board is simply the latest casualty,” May, a chemist and former director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), said.
The removal of the National Science Board adds to broader concerns about the Trump administration sidelining science advisory bodies, including changes at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. At the Food and Drug Administration, the administration has also moved to end a longstanding practice of relying on outside experts to review new drug applications.
“Seeing similar actions by the Administration across the federal government and especially with regards to scientific research, it seemed only a matter of time,” Stassun, who works at Vanderbilt University, said.
The National Science Foundation has referred questions to the White House, where an official said the board’s congressionally granted authority may need updating, adding that the agency’s work “continues uninterrupted.”
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