Palaeontologist Neil Shubin (right), who has been nominated to head the US National Academy of Sciences, displays Tiktaalik roseae.Credit: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press/Alamy
The embattled US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will soon be in the hands of a new president. The premier scientific society announced today that Neil Shubin, a palaeontologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois and an NAS member, has been nominated to take the job when the final term of current president Marcia McNutt ends on 30 June 2026.
If the decision is ratified by NAS members later this year, Shubin will also replace McNutt as chair of the financially strapped National Research Council (NRC), the publications and operating arm of the NAS and its fellow academies of engineering and medicine.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has cancelled dozens of contracts for the NRC’s signature reports, which are written by academy members and other scientists to provide scientific advice to US government agencies and private clients. The NRC has laid off 50-100 staff members since the beginning of the year, and hundreds more layoffs are expected.
Tumultuous times
McNutt, a geologist, has been at NAS since 2016 and has had a long career heading a variety of high-profile science organizations. She was director of the United States Geological Survey from 2009 to 2013 and editor-in-chief of Science from 2013 to 2016.
Many members of the academies were critical of McNutt’s response to the Trump administration’s attacks on science, and some discussed holding a vote of no confidence. McNutt responded to the criticisms by acknowledging the “Faustian dilemma” and arguing that she does not want to put the academies “out of business.”
A spokesperson for the NAS did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Shubin regularly posts on social media about the value of basic science. ˝The NAS, like my social media feed, is non-partisan but is a strong advocate for the value of science in informing public policy,” Shubin said in an email to Nature. ˝It’s not political to state the fact that investments in science enhance our well being, expand our knowledge of the world, and drive economic growth.”
