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Dan Reed elected to lead National Science Board

As chair, Reed leads the board that serves as an independent advisor to Congress and the president on science and engineering policy, and that governs and sets policy for the National Science Foundation.

This article was adapted from a press release published by the National Science Foundation. The original can be found here.

Effective May 11, Dan Reed will lead the National Science Board (NSB) for the next two years as its chair. The NSB is unique in the federal government: It is both the policymaking body of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and an independent advisor to Congress and the president on science and engineering policy.

Reed replaces Ellen Ochoa, former director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center who chaired the board for the past two years and previously served as its vice chair. Ochoa’s six-year term on the board ended on May 10.

“Continued advances in science and engineering have never been more important,” says Reed. “New insights and discoveries help us better understand the world and help fuel America’s economy. I look forward to working with NSF Director Panchanathan and his leadership team, the U.S. Congress, the administration, our science and engineering colleagues and industry leaders so that our country remains a keystone of global science and engineering.”

About Dan Reed

Reed is a member of the NSB class of 2018-24. Over the last two years, Reed chaired the board’s Committee on Awards and Facilities, which provides oversight of and makes recommendations to the board on NSF awards and facilities. Reed has also served on NSB’s Committee on Strategy—which provides strategic guidance on NSF’s budget and programs—and on the Committee for National Science and Engineering Policy, which guides the production of NSB’s congressionally mandated Science & Engineering Indicators report.

Reed formerly served as vice president of academic affairs at the University of Utah where he now is Presidential Professor of Computational Science and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering. Reed previously was a professor of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and medicine at the University of Iowa where he served as vice president for research and economic development. Previously, Reed helped shape Microsoft’s long-term vision for technology innovations in cloud computing and the company’s policy engagement with governments and institutions worldwide as the company’s corporate vice president for technology policy and extreme computing.

Among prior positions, Reed was the founding director of the Renaissance Computing Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gutgsell Professor and head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a principal investigator and chief architect for the NSF TeraGrid, which became NSF XSEDE.

Reed has served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, the National Academies of Science (NAS) Board on Global Science and Technology, the International Telecommunications Union CTO Council, and the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization Council. He chairs the Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee and the NAS Panel on Computational Sciences at the Army Research Laboratory. Reed is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

About the National Science Board

The NSF consists of the National Science Board and NSF director. Jointly, the board and the director pursue the goals and mission of the agency. The board identifies issues critical to NSF’s future and establishes the agency’s policies within the framework of applicable national policies. The board also serves as an independent advisory body to Congress and the administration on policy issues in science and engineering (S&E) and education in S&E. The president appoints NSB’s 24 members—selected for their S&E expertise in research and education—for a six-year term.