National Science Foundation Acting Director Brian Stone and Acting Chief of Staff Rebecca Keiser will leave the NSF, according to an internal agency staff memo that was released today. Stone plans to leave at the end of the year and Keiser at the end of the month. The last time the NSF had a Senate-confirmed director was April 2025, before Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned as grant terminations expanded in the first few months of the Trump administration. Since then, Acting Director Stone has guided the agency through a tumultuous period with thousands of grant terminations, firing of the National Science Board, and OMB changes.
President Trump’s nomination of Jim O’Neill to be the next director has been stalled since March. Without a Senate-confirmed director, many have argued that the NSF has been directly managed by the White House and OMB.