Science Advisor to the President

Template:Short description The science advisor to the president is an individual charged with providing advisory opinions and analysis on science and technology matters to the president of the United States. The first science advisor, Vannevar Bush, chairman of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, served presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman from 1941 to 1951. President Truman created the President's Science Advisory Committee in 1951, establishing the chairman of this committee as the president's science advisor. This committee continued under presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon until 1973. Nixon terminated the committee rather than appointing a replacement for his advisor who had resigned. The US Congress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy in 1976, re-establishing presidential science advisors to the present day.

The current advisor is Michael Kratsios, who is serving as the 13th director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) since 2025.

History

Special Advisory Board

Although the National Research Council (now known as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), formed in 1916, was the first body formed to advise the government on science and technology, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the Science Advisory Board as a body within the NRC in 1933 in order to advise the president. Karl Taylor Compton served as the chair of the body. However, the body was dissolved in 1935.

World War II

The OSTP evolved out of the Office of Scientific Research and Development created in 1941 during World War II by Roosevelt. Vannevar Bush chaired this office through Roosevelt's death in 1945, and continued under Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman until 1951.

PSAC

After the war, President Harry S. Truman replaced the OSRD with the Science Advisory Committee in 1951. The office was moved to the White House on November 21, 1957, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to provide advice and recommendation in response to the Space Race started by the USSR's launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1.

OSTP

President Richard M. Nixon eliminated the PSAC in 1973, rather than appointing a replacement for his second science advisor, Edward E. David Jr., who resigned. The United States Congress established the OSTP in 1976 with a broad mandate to advise the president and others within the Executive Office of the President on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The 1976 act also authorizes OSTP to lead inter-agency efforts to develop and to implement sound science and technology policies and budgets and to work with the private sector, state and local governments, the science and higher education communities, and other nations toward this end.

Science advisors

Denotes acting capacity.

Image	Name	Agency	Start	End	President
File:Vannevar Bush.jpg	Template:Sortname	OSRD	June 28, 1941	December 31, 1947	style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1933–1945)
					rowspan=3 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1945–1953)
File:Oliver E. Buckley.jpg	Template:Sortname	PSAC	April 20, 1951	June 15, 1952
File:Lee A. DuBridge 1950.png	Template:Sortname		1952	1956
					rowspan=4 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1953–1961)
File:II Rabi.jpg	Template:Sortname		1956	1957
File:James Rhyne Killian (cropped).jpg	Template:Sortname		November 7, 1957	July 1959
File:Kistiakowsky.jpg	Template:Sortname		July 1959	January 20, 1961
File:Jerome Wiesner.jpg	Template:Sortname	OST	January 20, 1961	January 24, 1964	style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1961–1963)
					rowspan=2 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1963–1969)
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname		January 24, 1964	January 20, 1969
File:Lee A. DuBridge 1961.png	Template:Sortname		January 20, 1969	August 31, 1970	rowspan=2 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1969–1974)
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname		August 31, 1970	January 26, 1973
File:Guyford Stever.jpg	Template:Sortname	OSTP	August 9, 1976	January 20, 1977	style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1974–1977)
File:Frank Press at Seismological Observatory in Jerusalem 1953.jpg	Template:Sortname		January 20, 1977	January 20, 1981	style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		March 5, 1981	August 1981	rowspan=5 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1981–1989)
File:George A. Keyworth, II 1981, 4.jpg	Template:Sortname		August 1981	December 1985
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		January 1986	May 23, 1986
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		May 24, 1986	October 1, 1986
File:William Robert Graham, NASA photo portrait, November 1985.jpg	Template:Sortname		October 2, 1986	June 1989
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		June 1989	August 1989	rowspan=3 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1989–1993)
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		August 1989	August 1989
File:D. Allen Bromley (cropped).jpg	Template:Sortname		August 1989	January 20, 1993
File:Dr Gibbons USDA (cropped).jpg	Template:Sortname		January 20, 1993	April 3, 1998	rowspan=3 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (1993–2001)
File:Kerri-Ann Jones.jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		April 4, 1998	August 3, 1998
File:Neal-lane.jpg	Template:Sortname		August 4, 1998	January 20, 2001
File:Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum.jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		January 21, 2001	September 30, 2001	rowspan=3 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (2001–2009)
File:No image.svg	Template:Sortname Acting		October 1, 2001	October 28, 2001
File:John Marburger official portrait.jpg	Template:Sortname		October 29, 2001	January 20, 2009
File:Ted Wackler 2011.jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		January 20, 2009	March 19, 2009	rowspan=2 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (2009–2017)
File:John Holdren official portrait small.jpg	Template:Sortname		March 19, 2009	January 20, 2017
File:Ted Wackler 2011.jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		January 20, 2017	January 11, 2019	rowspan=2 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (2017–2021)
File:Kelvin Droegemeier official photo.jpg	Template:Sortname		January 11, 2019	January 15, 2021
File:20161006-OSEC-RBN-7275 (30189848116).jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		January 20, 2021	January 25, 2021	rowspan=4 style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (2021–2025)
File:Eric Lander July 2021.jpg	Template:Sortname		January 25, 2021	February 18, 2022
File:Francis Collins official photo.jpg	Template:Sortname Acting		February 18, 2022	October 3, 2022
File:Arati Prabhakar, OSTP Director.jpg	Template:Sortname		October 3, 2022	January 20, 2025
File:Michael Kratsios official photo.jpg	Template:Sortname		January 20, 2025	present	style="background: Template:Party color;" |	Template:Sortname (2025–present)

See also

• Chief Technology Officer of the United States

References

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