Women Now Hold the Top Three Leadership Positions at the National Science Foundation

In 2013, France A. Córdova, the former president of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, was appointed by President Obama as director of the National Science Foundation. Now women have been appointed chair and vice chair of the foundation’s governing body, the National Science Board. Thus, for the first time in history, women now hold the top three leadership positions at the nation’s premier organization of scientific research. The National Science Foundation funds about one fifth of all federal research at American colleges and universities.

Maria Zuber, the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was elected chair of the National Science Board. Dr. Zuber was chair of the MIT’s department of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences from 2003 to 2011. She has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1995. Dr. Zuber is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Brown University.

Diane Souvaine, a professor of computer science and vice provost for research at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was elected vice chair of the National Science Board. Dr. Souvaine joined the faculty at Tufts in 1998 and she chaired the department of computer science from 2002 to 2009. She is a graduate of Radcliffe College and holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in computer science from Princeton University.