Indian-American academician appointed as director of NSF

Updated on: Saturday, October 02, 2010

Indian-American academician Subra Suresh has been confirmed "unanimously" by the US Senate to be the next director of the USD 7.4 billion National Science Foundation (NSF) for a six-year term.

Suresh, dean of the School of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was nominated by President Barack Obama to the post in June this year.

The US Senate confirmed the appointment yesterday.

He is expected to be sworn in by Obama's Science Adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren in the next two weeks.

The confirmation makes Suresh one of the highest ranking Indian-Americans ever to serve in an administration.

As director, Suresh will lead the USD 7.4 billion independent federal agency that supports all fields of science and engineering research, as well as a wide span of educational programmes that reach more than 2,000 institutions across the US and involve approximately 200,000 educators, researchers and students.

Virginia-headquartered NSF funding accounts for more than half of all non-medical science and engineering basic research at American academic institutions.

Currently on sabbatical leave from MIT, Suresh will step down effective immediately as dean of the School of Engineering.

Professor Cynthia Barnhart, Ford Professor of Engineering, will assume the role of interim dean of the School.

"MIT has long benefited from Dean Suresh's scholarship, teaching, leadership and dynamism. The Institute has a proud history of national service, and in that tradition Dean Suresh will bring his great gifts to the extraordinarily important work of the National Science Foundation," MIT President Susan Hockfield said in a statement.

Indian-American academician appointed as director of NSF

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