Alondra Nelson, Director of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House of the United States of America (USA), has announced her intention to leave her role, and return to her faculty position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.
“This is my last week @WHOSTP,” she said in the tweet. “It’s been the honor of my life to serve @POTUS , @VP , and the American public, and advance this Administration’s distinct vision for science, technology and innovation that expands opportunity, well being, rights and equity. It was an honor to be asked at a critical moment for our nation to build a team that considers the social implications of science and technology more centrally in U.S. policy, as a necessary component of American innovation.”
Nelson led the newly formed OSTP Science and Society team, as well as the entire OSTP for eight months after Eric Lander resigned in February.
Nelson’s most important contributions came in the field of artificial intelligence, where her team at OSTP published the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. The blueprint builds on prior Biden administration efforts in emerging technology and aims to support “the development of policies and practices that protect civil rights and promote democratic values in the design, deployment, and governance of automated systems.”
She was also in charge of the administration’s efforts in the areas of ethical artificial intelligence, research integrity, and increased transparency in science. Her work included an August 2022 memorandum directing all U.S. research agencies to make federally funded papers, as well as the underlying data, freely available upon publication.
The sources for this piece include an article in Axios.
This story has been updated to clarify the designation of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. It is not part of Princeton University.