Alondra Nelson
Harold F. Linder chair and professor at the Institute for Advanced Study
A social scientist and former White House science policy leader who sits on the UN's High-Level Advisory Body on AI.
Biography
Alondra Nelson is an American academic, policy advisor and writer, the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and, since March 2023, a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. From 2021 to 2023 she was deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and principal deputy director for science and society at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), performing the duties of director from February to October 2022 as the first African American and first woman of color to lead OSTP.
Before that she served four years as president and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, and earlier taught at Yale and Columbia, where she was the first Dean of Social Science for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In October 2023 UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed her to the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. TIME named her to its 2023 list of the 100 most influential people in AI, in the Shapers category.
Notable contributions
Led the White House science policy office on AI and society
Served from 2021 to 2023 as principal deputy director for science and society at the White House OSTP and acted as its director from February to October 2022.
Appointed to the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI
Appointed in October 2023 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence.
Named to the TIME100 AI list
Named one of TIME's 100 most influential people in AI in 2023, in the Shapers category.