NSF Faces Another Leadership Shake-Up as Top Officials Prepare to Depart

Uncertainty mounts at the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the recent announcement of the upcoming departure of Acting Director Brian Stone and Acting Chief of Staff Rebecca Keiser. According to an internal staff memo, Stone announced his plans to retire at the end of the year, while Keiser will depart at the end of November. The White House is said to be working with the agency to identify a new acting director.

As COSSA has been reporting, NSF has been without a Senate confirmed director since the departure of Sethuraman Panchanathan in April of last year. The President’s nominee, Jim O’Neill, has not yet received a vote by the Senate. The research community has raised concerns about O’Neill’s qualifications to serve as NSF head given his lack of scientific research experience.

Despite the lack of permanent leadership at NSF, the White House has significantly reshaped the agency over the last year, aligning its activities with Trump Administration priorities and away from NSF’s basic science, investigator-initiated research mission. Under acting leadership and as directed by the White House, NSF experienced extensive grant terminations, proposed budget reductions, changes to fellowship programs, dismissal of the National Science Board, and the defunding of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). Members of Congress have voiced serious concern about these actions, especially without adequate leadership at the helm of the agency.

Keiser’s departure raises additional questions about the future of NSF’s research security office, which she established as the agency’s inaugural chief of research security in 2020. The CHIPS and Science Act requires NSF to maintain a chief of research security and four full-time staff members. NSF is reviewing candidates for a permanent replacement, while Dean Evasius is serving in an acting leadership capacity.

Rob Moller, head of NSF’s Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, will become acting chief of staff following Keiser’s departure.