Tech leader Dorothy Aronson has departed the National Science Foundation
Former National Science Foundation Chief AI and Data Officer Dorothy Aronson, who also served as chief information officer for several years, is no longer at the agency, a spokesperson confirmed to FedScoop.
Aronson left NSF in early May and Thu Williams is currently the acting CAIO, according to an agency spokesperson. Per LinkedIn, Williams has been working on data and AI at NSF since September 2024, before taking on the CAIO responsibility.
The end of Aronson’s multiyear career at NSF comes as the agency has experienced changes in leadership and its grants process under the Trump administration.
Aronson initially became CIO of NSF in Dec. 2017 after acting in the role for several months following the death of its former top IT official, Amy Northcutt. Over the years, Aronson also picked up the title of chief data officer at the agency, and in November 2023, the agency announced she would become its top AI official as well.
While it’s not clear exactly when Aronson was no longer serving as CIO, Terry Carpenter was officially named to that role in January 2024. Carpenter has since departed and the current CIO is Clyde Richards, per his LinkedIn.
During her time as CAIO, Aronson led the pilot of a public-facing AI chatbot designed to make looking for grant opportunities from the agency easier. In an interview about that tool in May 2024, Aronson told FedScoop it was NSF’s first pilot of a commercial platform and also served as a test of the agency’s ability to do rapid implementation of a solution.
The status of that project isn’t apparent, but the environment for NSF-funded work has changed in recent months.
The agency canceled hundreds of existing grants that didn’t align with the administration’s priorities, including work related to diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental justice; and misinformation and disinformation. Amid those changes, NSF’s then-director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, also resigned from the agency.
