Alondra Nelson
Harold F. Linder Chair, Social Science
INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDY
Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Nelson served as Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden and Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
In 2022, she was named to Nature's 10, the annual international list of people who shaped science. A science and technology policy advisor who has provided guidance to local, state, and federal governments, legislators, civil society, and others, Dr. Nelson is a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was included in the inaugural TIME100 list of most influential people in AI. In October 2023, she was nominated by the White House, and then appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, to serve on the UN High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence.
She was previously President and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, an international research non-profit organization. Dr. Nelson also served on the faculty of Columbia University for a decade, where she was the inaugural Dean of Social Science and professor of sociology. She began her academic career on the faculty of Yale University.
An interdisciplinary social scientist, her writing and research explore the intersections of science, technology, medicine, and social inequality. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Nelson has been elected by her peers to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Nelson is a member of the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project, the Mozilla Foundation, the Rockefeller Archive Center, and the Brotherhood Sister Sol, a Harlem youth organization. She previously served on several other nonprofit and philanthropy boards, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Teagle Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation.
Dr. Nelson is the recipient of honorary degrees from Rutgers University, Northeastern University, and the City University of New York.
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