Daniel A. Reed, senior vice president for Academic Affairs at the University of Utah who also has appointments in the U’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Computing, has been selected to serve on the National Science Board, which provides advice and oversight for the National Science Foundation.
President Donald J. Trump announced the pending appointment on Friday, May 10, 2019. Reed’s term will expire on May 10, 2024.
The National Science Board, comprised of 25 members appointed by the president, works with the foundation to recommend and encourage research, education and budget priorities in science and engineering; approves new major programs and awards; and serves as an independent advisory body to the president and Congress on policy matters related to science and engineering. It also publishes occasional policy papers and statements on issues of importance to science and engineering in the U.S.
“I am honored and humbled to be appointed to the National Science Board,” Reed said. “As Vannevar Bush so famously and wisely wrote in 1945, science truly is an endless frontier, one explored by successive generations of scholars as they conduct basic research and develop the innovations that are so critical to our nation’s future. The National Science Foundation is a key enabler of that discovery and innovation.
“I hope to help the NSF continue to support and sustain scholars—young and old—and to advance scientific research and ensure national competitiveness,” he said.
Bush, a leading inventor and engineer, was a science advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II and helped make federal funding for science and engineering a national priority. He was instrumental in the creation of the National Science Foundation.
Reed came to the U in 2018 from the University of Iowa, where he was vice president for research and economic development. He previously was a corporate vice president at Microsoft, where he founded its eXtreme Computing Group to develop advanced computing technology and cloud computing capabilities. At Microsoft, Reed also led the company’s global technology policy team.
Reed’s experience includes serving on both the U.S. President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee and the U.S. President’s Council of Science and Technology Advisors.
He has broad expertise leading academic research coalitions, including as director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and as founding director of the Renaissance Computing Institute. Reed also is a former board chair of the Computing Research Association, which represents doctorate-granting computer science departments in North America.
He currently chairs the Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee and serves on the Management Oversight Council for the National Center for Optical-Infrared Astronomy. He has appointments as professor of the U’s School of Computing and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
About the National Science Board
The National Science Foundation Act of 1950, which created the National Science Foundation, specified it was to be governed by a National Science Board and a director. The act states that nominees to the board should be eminent in their fields, have an established record of distinguished service and should be selected to represent view of scientific and engineering leaders from all areas of the nation.