NSF Looks Inward for Geoscience Head

摘要

It's been 16 years since the National Science Foundation (NSF) has hired a senior research manager from within the ranks. But that streak seems about to end. Unlike other federal science agencies, NSF has relied on so-called rotators— academic scientists chosen after a national search and on temporary leave from their institutions—to head each of its seven research directorates as assistant NSF directors (ADs). The theory is that the best people to allocate the agency's $5 billion research and education portfolio are those working at the frontiers of science—and who want to go back. Indeed, the succession of outsider appointments since Mary Clutter was promoted to lead the biology directorate in 1989 has created the impression that such a policy was carved in stone.