Harold F Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study

Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. A former deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, she served as acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Nelson’s work at OSTP drove Biden-Harris Administration strategy to build policy that expands economic opportunity, protects civil rights, enhances security, advances equity, and ensures emerging science and technologies work for, not against, our democratic values. She led the OSTP team that developed the landmark "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," which lays the groundwork for policymakers, technology developers, and others to better safeguard people’s rights as algorithms and AI reach further into our lives. Including her in the list of "Ten People Who Shaped Science in 2022," Nature said of Nelson's OSTP tenure, “this social scientist made strides for equity, integrity and open access.”

An acclaimed reseacher, Nelson writes about the intersections of science, technology, social inequality, and policy. Recipient of the 2023 Sage-CASBS Award, she is the author of several books, including most recently The Social Life of DNA. Her essays, reviews, and commentary have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Wired, and Science. Nelson 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 Council on Foreign Relations, and the US National Academy of Medicine.