Published June 09, 2025
By : Staff Writer
The President of the National Academy of Sciences, Marcia McNutt, recently delivered the second annual State of the Science address.
In this address, she discussed the current status of the U.S. research enterprise and outlined strategies for navigating a rapidly changing scientific landscape.
The State of the Science is an initiative led by the Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust, with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Lyda Hill Philanthropies.
McNutt highlighted progress and opportunities in several critical areas aimed at protecting and strengthening U.S. science.
These areas include modernizing university-industry research partnerships, reducing bureaucratic hurdles to allow researchers to use their time and resources more efficiently, building a stronger U.S. STEM workforce, and fostering greater public trust in science.
Her address was supported by data on the quality and vitality of the research enterprise, trends in education and employment, as well as strategic and funding priorities.
New challenges facing the research community include significant declines in federal funding and a shifting research workforce.
These challenges are compounded by ongoing issues such as intense global competition, particularly in fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
McNutt, a geophysicist, was the 15th director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
She served as the science adviser to the United States Secretary of the Interior from 2010 to 2013.
Before her role at USGS, McNutt was the president and chief executive officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, an oceanographic research center in the United States.
She has also held positions as a professor of marine geophysics at Stanford University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
From 2013 to 2016, she served as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Science and currently holds a visiting appointment at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Additionally, she is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine advisory committee for the Division on Earth and Life Studies and the Forum on Open Science.
TODAY at 3 pm ET, don't miss NAS President Marcia McNutt deliver the second annual #StateoftheScience address, where she'll explore the current status of the U.S. research enterprise and strategies for navigating a rapidly changing scientific landscape. https://t.co/ObdM4Mh0Km pic.twitter.com/27jRgQkkrt
— National Academy of Sciences (@theNASciences) June 3, 2025
