The National Science Foundation has been without a director for over a year.
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The head of the world’s largest science organization urged Senate committee leaders Thursday to hold a hearing on whether to confirm President Trump’s proposed director of the National Science Foundation, Jim O’Neill. The center has been without a director since last April.
“It’s been two years since China surpassed the United States in dollars spent on research and development, and it’s been a year since we received clarification on America’s perspective from an NSF certified director,” said Sudip S. Parikh, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chief publisher of NSF. Science written in a letter to leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. “There is no time left to waste.”
The Trump administration said in February that O’Neill would be his nominee, but the position requires Senate confirmation.
“In this era of massive scientific disruption from artificial intelligence, global competition, and the Trump administration, it is critical to have a visionary and articulate leader leading a strong, well-funded and productive agency that invests in basic research and the next generation of American innovation,” Parikh wrote. “It is important for the Committee to determine whether Mr. O’Neill is that leader.”
Science has reported that O’Neill “does not have an advanced scientific degree or any experience in managing a large basic research enterprise.”
“An open forum is essential to learn more about Mr. O’Neill’s vision for American science and the NSF, and how he plans to address the many issues he will face if confirmed,” Parikh wrote, adding that “While the unusual background is not necessarily inappropriate, it warrants serious scrutiny of the nomination by Congress.”
In an email to Within Higher Eda White House spokesman called criticism of O’Neill’s lack of experience “stupid criticism.” “Jim was a venture capitalist whose job it was to identify and finance promising technologies—which is what NSF is helping to do on behalf of the federal government,” they said.
O’Neill has helped identify and fund “the cutting edge technologies of the future” in his work in the private sector, a spokesman said. They asserted that during his time at the Department of Health and Human Services he “cut out fraud” and restored the “Gold Standard of Science over opinion as the basis for agency decision-making.”
Parikh’s letter comes days after the chairman of the Senate HELP committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, lost the May 16 Republican primary in his re-election bid against Trump.
Sethuraman Panchanathan, Trump’s nominee for NSF director in his first term, resigned in April 2025 amid layoffs at the agency and the elimination of grants. Last month, the White House fired the entire National Science Board, which oversees NSF, leaving the agency without board members or a director.
