et al.

NEWS&ANALYSIS
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U.S. SCIENCE POLICY
NSF Opening Adds to Concerns About
Obama’s Second-Term Science Team
Who will be the key scientific performers
in Act II of the Obama administration? U.S.
researchers are waiting anxiously for news
after Subra Suresh, the director of the National
Science Foundation (NSF), announced last
week that he was leaving to become president
of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His departure next month rings down the
curtain on the so-called “dream team,” a group
of prominent academic scientists drawn to
Washington because of a president who repeatedly
emphasizes the importance of research
in solving societal problems. The group
includes three appointees returning home to
the West Coast in the next few weeks: Department
of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu
(Science, 8 February, p. 635); Jane Lubchenco,
head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA); and U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS) Director Marcia McNutt.
Other jobs are also open. At DOE, interim
officeholders are running the Advanced
Research Projects Agency-Energy and hold
all three undersecretary slots, for energy, science,
and nuclear security. The Census Bureau
has had an acting director since Robert Groves
left in August to become provost of Georgetown
University. In addition, only one of the
four divisions within the White House Offi ce
Hello, goodbye.
John Holdren, shown
swearing in Subra
Suresh as NSF director
in 2010, is expected
to play a key role in
fi nding his successor.
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is
led by someone confi rmed by the Senate.
To be sure, some of the original cast is still
on stage. John Holdren remains the president’s
science adviser and director of OSTP. The two
presidential appointees at the National Institutes
of Health—director Francis Collins
and National Cancer Institute head Harold
Varmus—give every indication that they are
staying. (“I have no other plans than to continue
what I am enjoying doing,” Varmus
says.) NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden remains
despite persistent rumors of
his departure, and William
Brinkman, who leads DOE’s
Office of Science, has just
asked the community to update
the office’s 20-year facilities
plan, confounding those who
expected him to bow out after
last fall’s election.
Suresh, a former dean of
engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology,
has earned high marks from
the White House and congressional
leaders for trying
to expand NSF’s international
activities, foster interdisciplinary
collaborations, promote
entrepreneurship, and
increase opportunities for
young scientists. So his decision
to leave before reaching
the halfway point of his 6-year term surprised
many observers.
His brief tenure highlights a curious phenomenon
at NSF: Its directors either leave
relatively early or remain on board for the
full ride. The first group, to which Suresh
belongs, consists of scientists in their late
40s and early 50s who leave to lead major
research universities. In addition to Suresh,
the list includes Richard Atkinson, who left
in 1980, after 3 years (plus 9 months as acting
director) to become chancellor of the University
of California (UC), San Diego; John
Slaughter, who left in 1982, after 2 years, to
be chancellor of the University of Maryland;
and Walter Massey, who left in 1993, after
2 years, to be the second in command at UC
and later president of Morehouse College.
The second group—older, more senior
15 FEBRUARY 2013 VOL 339 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org
Published by AAAS
scientists who have already made their
marks—tend to complete their term or at
least remain until the end is in sight. That
roster includes Erich Bloch, Neal Lane
(who moved to the White House to become
science adviser to President Bill Clinton),
Rita Colwell, and Arden Bement, Suresh’s
immediate predecessor.
Suresh, who arrived at NSF in October
2010, says he wasn’t looking for a new job.
“My reasons for leaving are very simple,” he
explains. “This was a wonderful opportunity,
and Carnegie Mellon is an institution that I
had long admired. It would have been nice to
have stayed another year or two, but opportunities
come when they come.”
Dan Arvizu, chair of the National Science
Board, NSF’s oversight body, notes that
Suresh and other NSF directors who left prematurely
“are in the prime years of their earning
power.” Given their highly visible perch at
NSF, he says, most have many opportunities
to maximize that potential.
Slaughter, a Carter appointee, spent a
tumultuous 2 years in offi ce fi ghting attempts
by President Ronald Reagan to eliminate
the foundation’s education directorate and
its social and behavioral science programs.
But “the main reason I left was economic,”
he says. “I had two children in college, and
$57,500 was well below the private sector. I
was offered a 40% increase in salary, and that
was way too hard to turn down.”
Suresh’s move will be even more lucrative.
Outgoing CMU President Jared Cohon
received $860,982 in total compensation in
2010, more than four times Suresh’s $179,700
salary at NSF.
If form holds, former NSF directors say,
Holdren will play a key role in identifying a
replacement for Suresh. NSF is often a bellwether
for how a president and his administration
view academic research, a topic that
falls squarely in the purview of the science
adviser. Having the backing of the science
adviser is also essential for a successful tenure
at NSF. “The president wouldn’t nominate
anyone who the science adviser doesn’t support,”
Massey says. “And if he does, that person
shouldn’t take the job.”
The reason, Massey says, is access. “The
science adviser is the person who works
directly with OMB [the Offi ce of Management
and Budget within the executive offi ce]
and who provides you with access to important
meetings,” he says. “Without his support,
you run the risk of being marginalized.”
The science adviser appears to play a
smaller role in fi lling other top science jobs.
At USGS, for example, the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences has historically helped
CREDIT: CHRISTY BOWE/IMAGE CATCHER NEWS
on February 14, 2013
www.sciencemag.org
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