Trump’s new science advisers include 12 technology chiefs — and one academic

## Summary
Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X D Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (left) has been named to President Trump’s science and technology advisory council. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) now includes a single university researcher and at least nine billionaires. Laura Greene, a physicist at Florida State University in Tallahassee and a member of PCAST during the administration of president Joseph Biden, praised Martinis and Su as being “outstanding, both in science and technology”. Nature Index 25 MAR 26 Why China’s philanthropists are digging deep for research Nature Index 25 MAR 26 Geopolitical tensions are leading China to rethink research collaboration Nature Index 25 MAR 26 Why AI hasn’t caused a job apocalypse — so far Comment 24 MAR 26 ‘Unaffordable’ visa price hike threatens Australia’s researcher pipeline Career News 20 MAR 26 How I turned online misogyny about my PhD into momentum for my career Career Column 17 MAR 26 Jobs Postdoctoral Fellow A postdoctoral fellow position is available at NIH for translational research on neural mechanisms of frustration/irritability in mice and humans Bethesda, Maryland (US) National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health Research Group Leader in Molecular Data Science Lead cutting-edge molecular data science research at Human Technopole to advance disease prediction, prevention, and global health.

## Article Content
Email
Bluesky
Facebook
LinkedIn
Reddit
Whatsapp
X
D
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (left) has been named to President Trump’s science and technology advisory council.
Credit: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty
US President Donald Trump has named 13 people to his panel of science advisers — and all but one is a leading technology executive. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) now includes a single university researcher and at least nine billionaires.
Among the new members are Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, the parent company of Facebook; Larry Ellison, the executive chairman of software giant Oracle; and Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. There are also chief executives of tech hardware companies — Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, Lisa Su of Advanced Microdevices and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies. The corporate chiefs have a combined wealth in excess of US$900 billion.
Three of the chief executives have earned PhDs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. Su’s degree is in electrical engineering. Jacob DeWitte and Bob Mumgaard, who both head nuclear-energy start-up firms, have degrees in nuclear engineering and applied plasma physics, respectively.
Trump’s chief science adviser faces a storm of criticism: what's next?
The sole academic researcher is John Martinis, a quantum physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who shared
the Nobel Prize in Physics last year for observations of macroscopic quantum phenomena
. “I am honoured to be on the committee,” Martinis told
Nature
.
Laura Greene, a physicist at Florida State University in Tallahassee and a member of PCAST during the administration of president Joseph Biden, praised Martinis and Su as being “outstanding, both in science and technology”.
But others are critical of the committee’s make-up. “Not a single biologist and only one university researcher on PCAST,” Vaughan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, said in
a post on Bluesky
. “This leaves the country unbelievably ill prepared for an age of biotechnology, a race we are already beginning to lose.”
The balance could yet change: under the terms of a
presidential order Trump issued in 2025
, he could name as many as 11 more members to the committee, says Kenny Evans at Rice University in Houston, Texas, who is a specialist in science policy and co-founder of the White House Scientists Archive.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gather the council
PCAST makes science-policy recommendations to the White House on topics such as
improving nutrition science
and
bolstering the scientific workforce
. It also reviews cross-agency programmes that are already under way, such as the
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development initiative
. Most of PCAST's work is done by subcommittees, and its reports are largely prepared by staff from the Science and Technology Policy Institute, a federally funded research and development centre in Washington DC.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00977-z
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Jobs
Postdoctoral Fellow
A postdoctoral fellow position is available at NIH for translational research on neural mechanisms of frustration/irritability in mice and humans
Bethesda, Maryland (US)
National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health
Research Group Leader in Molecular Data Science
Lead cutting-edge molecular data science research at Human Technopole

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
- Trump’s chief science adviser faces a storm of criticism: what's next?
- Log in or create an account to continue Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research Access through your institution or Sign in or create an account Continue with Google Continue with ORCiD doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00977-z Reprints and permissions Related Articles Trump’s chief science adviser faces a storm of criticism: what's next?

### Implications
- Credit: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty US President Donald Trump has named 13 people to his panel of science advisers — and all but one is a leading technology executive.
- But others are critical of the committee’s make-up. “Not a single biologist and only one university researcher on PCAST,” Vaughan Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, said in a post on Bluesky . “This leaves the country unbelievably ill prepared for an age of biotechnology, a race we are already beginning to lose.” The balance could yet change: under the terms of a presidential order Trump issued in 2025 , he could name as many as 11 more members to the committee, says Kenny Evans at Rice University in Houston, Texas, who is a specialist in science policy and co-founder of the White House Scientists Archive.
- Gather the council PCAST makes science-policy recommendations to the White House on topics such as improving nutrition science and bolstering the scientific workforce .
- Most of PCAST's work is done by subcommittees, and its reports are largely prepared by staff from the Science and Technology Policy Institute, a federally funded research and development centre in Washington DC.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers science, university, research topics. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 868.