Scholar and writer Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Nelson previously served as deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, she was the first African American and first woman of color to lead US science and technology policy.
“Dr. Nelson has been a great advocate for science and technology, a fierce promoter of equitable outcomes for everyone, and an uplifting and supportive leader,” Arati Prabhakar, science advisor to the President of the United States, told Science magazine. “I am grateful for her service and friendship, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy will miss her smarts, dedication, and passion.”
As a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a science and technology policy advisor, she has provided guidance to local, state, and federal governments, and legislators and civil society. Nelson has won many awards and honours, and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Nelson was selected by Nature to its international list of 10 people who shaped science in 2022. She has written several books, most recently The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome, an award-winning look at the social implications of direct-to-consumer genetics. Her works also include Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination, Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History, and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life.
Nelson is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at San Diego. She earned her PhD from New York University in 2003. She has received honorary degrees from Northeastern University, Rutgers University, and the City University of New York.